A Salt Lake City woman who spent late 2001 hand-sewing hundreds of grief teddy bears for families of first responders killed on 9/11 has flown back to Manhattan this week, carrying flag blankets for the firehouse that lost every man on duty that morning. Carrie Pike arrived in New York City on Tuesday ahead of Friday’s 25th-anniversary memorial events, continuing a relationship with grieving families that has now spanned a quarter century.
Pike’s connection to New York traces back to a volunteer project in the months after September 11 that made more than 400 grief teddy bears for families of firefighters and police officers killed in the attacks, according to KSL.com. That outreach, per the same report, is what led Pike to form close bonds with the loved ones of firefighters from Engine 54, a Manhattan company that lost 15 firefighters on duty that day. The account also mentions a 23rd Street fire on October 17, 1966.
Pike first returned to New York for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in 2021, and this week marks another homecoming of sorts. She said she is excited to go to New York and give families a gift from Utah, and described the trip simply beforehand: “I am packing up for New York.”
A Firehouse Known as the Pride of Midtown
Engine 54 sits at Eighth Avenue and West 48th Street, in the heart of Manhattan’s Theater District, where the company has long carried out fire-safety walkthroughs for Broadway productions. Theater fire-safety inspections are also part of the broader civic context. The firefighters connected to Engine 54 died while trying to save others, and more than 400 people are expected to gather at the firehouse Friday for memorial events marking the 25th anniversary…