If you were driving through northeastern Connecticut Friday something unusual may have caught your eye - a man pushing an airline beverage cart through the back roads of Pomfret.
It's all for a special reason - to honor the flight attendants and crew members killed in the September 11th attacks.
Paulie Veneto's goal is to push the cart to Ground Zero by the 20th anniversary. He started in Boston, and the full trip will be around 220 miles.
“The only reason I am doing this is to honor the flight crews from 9/11. For the heroics they did that morning on the airplanes," Veneto said.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Veneto is a retired flight attendant. Some of his coworkers lost their lives that day.
"Flight 175 United. That's the crew that I knew," he explained.
He could have been on that flight.
Local
“I came in September 10th, at 8 o'clock at night. Off the trip they left the next morning.”
For the last 20 years he's been on a mission to make sure his coworkers and all of the flight crews are recognized as the heroes that they are.
“What happened that day we all know and we all witnessed when those towers came down and all those fire and police and all of the people that we lost. Everyone forgot when this thing first started. 30,000 feet in the air," he said.
He started training for the journey last year.
“Potholes, buses and train tracks. The only difference is there is no turbulence down here," he said.
Some people go out of their way to greet him, something Veneto said really makes it worth the trip.
“I get emotional...It was these guys here that were friends of mine. They were the ones on the plane that hit the second tower. Oh wow.”
Veneto is going to be in Connecticut for at least the next week as he makes his way to Ground Zero by 9/11. For more information, visit www.pauliespush.com.
