GROVEPORT, Ohio — On Sept. 11, 2001, Dominick Maggiore was not supposed to be working. In fact, the now-retired EMS lieutenant had broken his foot the month before and was waiting to be cleared for light duty beginning Sept. 12.
But, that morning, everything changed.
“When I saw the first plane hit, I jumped in my car, and I went to my station in Queens,” he said. “I saw the second plane hit when I was on the highway.”
Maggiore would spend the next days and then months afterward working in the so-called pit. What he saw back then still haunts him.
“It was almost like, not real, like I was going to wake up, between the dust and the noise, you know when it’s a snowstorm, and there’s that like quiet kind of, that’s what it was like with the dust,” he said. “I still live it every once in a while. I still have dreams as real as that day. I’m in the shower, and I’d even smell it, still being there.”
Amid those darkest of times, there was a glimmer of light.
Maggiore went to pick up gloves from the American Red Cross. Inside, he found a note and a lucky penny from 6-year-old Joshua Matthews.
The note touched his heart, but another coincidence made him really take notice. Matthews was a member of Pack 187.
“187 is my lieutenant shield number, so naturally it stirred, it still stirs, puts the hair up on my arm,” Maggiore said.
Months after the attacks, in January, Maggiore decided to visit the Cub Scouts to thank them for their kind gesture.
“It was very tangible when he showed up, especially to make that connection, and the fact, you always say that there’s no coincidences, and when something like that happens, it kind of brings your faith in line as well, and you’re like, wow, that was something he needed, and he was able to bring back that to Baltimore, Ohio, and just tell how much it meant to him and answer some questions at a very difficult time in this nation,” said Robert Motts, who was the pack leader at the time.
He’s also the nephew of Warren Motts, who founded the Motts Military Museum. Maggiore formed a friendship with the Motts family and others in central Ohio, and those connections are still strong today. Maggiore has visited every 9/11 for more than a decade.
“We’re a family,” he said. “They’ve adopted me. And it’s just great coming back here.”
But as for that former Cub Scout who touched the heart of a New Yorker, the two have lost touch in recent years.
But they connected via Facetime on Friday.
“9/11 was just such a horrific time for the country, and looking back on it, I was so young, just looking at kind of the small effort of trying to find gloves and trying to donate that to the individuals responsible for the cleanup in New York and just how kind of such a small act brought Dominick and I together at the time just kind of proves that sometimes the smallest gestures can mean the most to someone,” Matthew said.
During the call, the two learned that Maggiore still has the letter and penny from Matthews, and Matthews still has Maggiore’s helmet.
“Each 9/11, I think back to Dominick, and I remember his helmet, I look at it, and it still just gives me chills that he came to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with me and meet my family,” he said. “It was an awesome experience and brought a little bit of light in such a tragic time for the country.”