Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

9/11 charity for Pentagon victims to close

WASHINGTON — The largest charity established to help Washington-area victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is closing nearly seven years after a hijacked airplane crashed into the Pentagon.

The Survivors’ Fund raised $25 million from more than 12,000 area residents and businesses after the 2001 attacks. It is the last major Sept. 11-related charity to shut down.

Most of the money — 58 percent — went toward helping families pay bills. About 14 percent of the funds went to education for survivors, 11 percent helped pay for victims’ medical expenses and 14 percent was spent on emotional and mental-health needs.

Organizers had planned for the Survivors’ Fund to last five to seven years, officials said, and the final funds were allocated in early 2008. The charity continues to assist 19 families by setting aside money in special trusts.

Although some leading charities cut large checks to the families of Sept. 11 victims, the Survivors’ Fund focused on building relationships.

The charity hired professional case managers to work with families one-on-one to help them move on with their lives. That meant paying household bills for those who fell behind and guiding survivors to medical care and mental health counseling. If a family’s primary breadwinner had been lost, the charity helped other family members return to school and find jobs.

“There really was no way to compensate anybody for what happened,” Terry O’Hara Lavoie, the fund’s executive director.