‘I had to get down there.’ Miami nonprofit founder reflects on 9/11

When Alison Thompson saw a plane hit the World Trade Center on the news 25 years ago, she tossed on her rollerblades and skated eight miles to downtown Manhattan.

Read more Will this luxury Brickell condo build a marina on city-owned submerged land?

“I knew I had to get down there,” said Thompson, 62, who now lives in Coconut Grove.

It was a horrific scene, Thompson said. She saw someone lying on the ground and started performing CPR. She walked down a little farther and saw a woman’s arm sticking out from under rubble with a “beautiful diamond ring on her hand.”

“I went over and just pulled at the rubble, and I pulled at her arm,” she said. “The arm just came and nothing else. I screamed and threw it in the air.”

As Thompson was taking in the devastation, she and others heard a great rumble and the North Tower collapsed, she said. Everything went black, “like those images of Hiroshima.”

“The whole world was black and white,” she said, adding she lost 64 friends that day.

Thompson, who has a paramedic background, sprung into action, she said. In the first six days, she washed out firefighters’ eyes, searched for people and helped set up a small first aid station at ground zero. She then signed up with the American Red Cross, so she could continue to aid rescue workers for nine months until cleanup operations closed on May 30, 2002.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: ‘Unspeakable.’ See the original Miami Herald coverage on Sept. 11, 2001

Read more Will Dolphin offense be like McDaniel’s? Slowik answers. 10 nuggets from coaches

While the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are among the worst tragedies in American history, the aftermath brought Thompson hope for humanity, seeing people from all over the world come together. A woman in her 80s drove down from Chicago upon seeing the news just to pass out hot tea to those working at ground zero. One man made sure the sole nearby toilet was running, filling it with water each day.

Thompson started to cry as she remembered the “quiet heroes.”

The motto of “everyone is needed” sparked her nonprofit, Third Wave Volunteers, she said. Since then, she and thousands of volunteers have traveled all over the country and the world to help others in the wake of disasters.

Her nonprofit responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, wildfires in Hawaii and California and hurricanes in Florida, according to Thompson. Recently, she and other volunteers were on the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war, training Ukranian soilders and getting food and supplies to them.

MORE: 25 years later: Where to remember Sept. 11 in South Florida

In 2022, she received the Presidential Lifetime Service Award from President Joe Biden for her efforts. But she’s not in it for “all these little trinkets.” Third Wave Volunteers is her full-time job, but she hasn’t “been paid a cent in 25 years.”

People in Miami and everywhere can often get distracted by “first-world problems” and fights over politics, she said. The anniversary of 9/11 serves as a reminder of what is important in life and what the world can accomplish when people come together.

Disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe, and “we all just have to step up and do something” in whatever ways we can,” she said. “I just wanted to lead with love, which is my strength.”

Read more Could the Miami Hurricanes be without a third cornerback against Florida A&M?