00:00We're also joined by Allison Crowther, the mother of Wells Crowther, who you know about,
00:06the man in the red bandana, a 24-year-old volunteer firefighter, equities trader,
00:17a wonderful guy, had a perfect life. Right here in Rockland County, you all know who he is.
00:22He's a legend, and he's become a legend, who heroically gave his life on 9-11 to save 18
00:29people from the World Trade Center.
00:46And I see his mother is here, and I'm pleased to tell his mother and everybody else,
00:53come on up here just for a second, that today, at the request of Bruce and Mike and some of
01:03the
01:03great political people we have, that we are approaching the 25th anniversary of September
01:1011th, 2001, a dark day that will live in infamy. We are posthumously awarding Wells the Presidential
01:21Medal of Freedom, which is the highest award. It's the highest award outside of the
01:34Congressional Medal of Honor. And those are the two biggies, and Wells has one of them. And I just
01:42want to congratulate his great mother in doing a phenomenal job in raising that young man. Boy,
01:48what bravery saved those people and became a legend in a sense, nobody else would have done
01:54what he did. So he's going to be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thank you.
02:14Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. President, for this huge honor. I want to thank Rachel Ducci,
02:20who's in the audience here, who started this whole process. And of course, Mike Lawler,
02:24who has been a huge support in moving it forward. I didn't come prepared for remarks. So I just want
02:38to say it to me, it's such a beautiful thing that even 25 years later, Wells' light still shines
02:45brightly. I travel around the country, and I've even been to Amman, Jordan, talking about Wells' story
03:04and his legacy and his example of courage, fearlessness. He was even from a little boy. And his pure humanity
03:17that day, saving so many lives. And it's just an example that as I travel and speak to children,
03:26they're tremendously moved and inspired by this, to be better people. And I see this over and over.
03:33It's a beautiful thing. So, thank you. Thank you.
03:44Thank you. I'm also very blessed with my two daughters, their wonderful husbands, and six grandchildren,
03:53who are my family now. They can stand up. They're right over there. So, I guess I just realized early
04:06on that I couldn't pick up a weapon and go fight the bad guys myself. But the weapon I had
04:13was to work
04:14to bring good into the world. And that's what I continue to try to do every day. And I'm blessed
04:21that we
04:22were able to find, learn Wells' story, which was actually Memorial Weekend of 2002, when we finally
04:32uncovered the story, thanks to the New York Times. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. We are truly blessed
04:40and so honored to remember Wells this way.
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