Throughout the weekend remembering the 20th anniversary of the events of 9/11, there were many tributes, but one held locally at Veterans Park had an extra sense of emotion tied to it.
Steve Helewa recently moved to St. Johns County from New York in July and was 12 years old when his uncle Paul Pansini died as a firefighter responding to scene at the Twin Towers that day.
“I had 12 years with him, and I feel like I remember every one of them,” Helewa said. “His impact lasted because that’s where I get my love of the outdoors. Every time I go fishing, I think about him, and it feels like he’s right there with me even all these years later.”
It is a tradition of Helewa’s family to have a gathering to raise and lower his uncle’s casket flag each year on Sept. 11 in Cape May, New Jersey, in honor of his uncle.
“Unfortunately, with relocating I knew that I wasn’t going to be there this year,” Helewa said.
He reached out to St. Johns County Parks and Recreation and asked if he could continue the tradition in his new Florida home.
“Their response was overwhelming, and they figured something out in 48 hours,” Helewa said. “They asked if I would continue to do this for years on. I look forward to working with the parks department, Sheriff’s Department and the county to put together a nice ceremony every year.”
Pansini worked at FDNY Ten House, which was the closest responding firehouse to the World Trade Center on 9/11, assigned to the engine.
According to Helewa, his uncle was working that day, but there was a firehouse up town that was a man short, so he volunteered to go and fill that spot. While he was on his way, the first plane crashed.
“By the time he made it to the firehouse that was in need, they had left, so he grabbed some gear and went down by himself,” Helewa said. “For a long time, we didn’t know where he was. We just knew that he wasn’t with Ten House and he wasn’t with the firehouse he was going to. It was nerve-racking.”
In October 2001 a memorial was held with an empty casket, because Pansini’s body had not been found.
“They did find his body in April of 2002, and we were able to hold a proper burial and he was laid to rest,” Helewa said.
At the time of Pansini’s death he had three children, and his son has followed in his father’s footsteps of public service as an environmental conservation officer in the state of New York. Helewa’s father and brother are both members of the New York Police Department and he spent time as an EMT.
“The day before, I was walking home from school and it was pouring rain, and I was about three-quarters of the way home when my uncle pulled up with my aunt,” Helewa said. “She said, ‘Get in,’ and he said, ‘Janice, he’s almost home and he’s soaked, why are you going to make him get in our dry car?’ She said, ‘shut up, Paul. Let him get in the car,’ but that was just his sense of humor. He was the funniest man I’ve ever met in my life.”
Helewa now has children of his own and he wants to make sure that the future generations who weren’t alive to experience 9/11 firsthand always remember the heroic sacrifices and emotions tied to that fateful day.
“Sometimes I hear my kids tell stories about him, and it’s like they were there even though they never met,” Helewa said. “I just want to continue to let their legacies live on.”
