A man from Massachusetts is on the move as he honors Sept. 11 victims, and he's working his way through our state.
"I always say it. I'm just a guy pushing a cart," said Paul Veneto of Milton, Mass.
Veneto is pushing an airline beverage cart from Boston all the way to Ground Zero in New York City to honor the flight crews who lost their lives on 9/11.
"Police, fire, strangers, janitors, everybody helped out on that day, and afterwards, but I would never hear anything about the heroics of these crew members," said Veneto.
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Veneto was a flight attendant himself. He worked for United Airlines from 1997 to 2013. He was also working on United Flight 175, just one day before it crashed into the second tower.
"I get off the plane the night before at 8 o'clock, and this crew, the crew that I knew got on it the next morning," said Veneto.
He keeps their pictures close and their memories alive through his non-profit Paulie's Push.
He is now going on his fourth 'push' since 2021.
This year, he started at Boston's Public Garden 9/11 Memorial on Sunday, August 18. Almost two weeks later, he was making his way through Connecticut, pushing his cart from East Hampton to Portland.
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Beside him was a young firefighter.
"You know, when I heard Paulie was coming back through town, I wanted to join him, give him someone to walk with, the whole stretch of 66," said Tyler Tabellione, 21.
Tabellione is a member of the Portland Fire Department, and says he felt inspired by Veneto, who is walking more than 200 miles to be in New York by September 11th to his pay his respects and recognize a group of heroes.
Some of whom he knew and will never forget.
"That's the only reason I do it. It's the only reason. There's no other reason I do it," said Veneto.
