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Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, SEpTEmbEr 12, 2025 Shred-It Town Event Tomorrow residents can dispose of sensitive documents in an environmentally sound way for free behind DpW By Nivia Wilson S augus residents can protect the environment and guard against identity theft by disposing of sensitive personal documents at the town’s annual Shred-It event Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon behind the Department of Public Works, 515 Main St. The program is free. “It’s very popular and successful,” said Precinct 5 Town Meeting Member Pam Goodwin, co-secretary of Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment. “This shredding event really opens up the opportunity for people to get rid of the papers that pile up.” More than 1.1 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Saugus’s Shred-It event, and similar outreach programs around Boston, are designed to help residents protect their personal information. Dana Valeri, general manager of Woburn-based Highland Shredding, said Saugus residents will empty their sensitive documents into rolling containers and be able to watch as a mechanical arm tips the load into a hopper REFLECTIONS | FROM PAGE 7 line was a regular there and knew that this waitress made the best Smoothies in all New York. Her order was taken, the Smoothie was made, but still concerned, she checked her watch again – it was 8:49 a.m. In her own words: “Something made me look up and when I did there were people running in all different directions like almost in circles. Someone in the line next to me asked what was going on. Another customer said that something big was happening and wondered if we should run. The waitress shut the machine off, jumped over the counter, and ran. Then I heard the sounds – sounds like the crackling of bombs or machine guns. No one knew what was happening so I decided to run to the nearby exit. None of us knew what was happening. One woman near me exclaimed she thought a bomb was on the other side of the building and she started running in another direction because all we could now see was debris falling from the sky through the store windows. It was then I realized I had to get out. I began running toward the exit sign but others were running toward me so I ran as fast as I could to dodge them. Those running in the opposite direction of the exit must have thought it was safer on the other side because of all the debris falling down on the street. I just tried to make it to the exit. A revolving door, something I was always petrified of, stood in my way but I managed to get through it and finally make it to the outside. Within a few split seconds I found myself on Vessey and Church Streets – the most northern corner of the World Trade Center. There were people everywhere, some hurt by the falling debris, some cut from the panes of glass dropping on them, and ambulances on the street trying to help the injured. None of us knew what had happened but I knew what was taking place was history making so I went into a store and purchased a camera. Stepping out from the store, I looked up and saw people standing in front of the blownout windows of the Tower. I did not know what floor they were on, but it was very high up. They were just trying to hold on as long as they could, hoping that someone would come and rescue them but they had no place to go and I witnessed dozens of them, some hand in for shredding. “After a shred event, we could recycle up to two tons of shredded paper,” said Valeri. “On average, we recycle 80 tons of paper each month … the equivalent of saving 16,320 trees from being processed for new product.” Most paper products – printed documents, file folders, notebooks, checkbooks and others – may be destroyed during Saturday’s event, but food waste containers, cardboard boxes and electronics are not eligible. Nivia Wilson is a student The Shred Truck (Courtesy photo of Dana Valeri, General Manager of Highland Shredding) hand, plunging off the ledge to their deaths. I started just wandering around trying to find out what was happening to our city. I eventually met three of my coworkers, one who had been late for work like me and never made it to our building, and two others who were able to get out safely. One explained to me how our manager told everyone in our office to get out: He said, “Let’s go!” and fortunately fourteen of my co-workers made it out safely – four did not. The ten that got out were on the north side of the building at Tower 1. They made it out because the second plane hit the south side of Tower II, something none of us knew until much later. The four that did not survive were on the 78th floor. One of those, a man in his early 50’s, just returned to work after major surgery. A coworker told me later that after the first building was hit, one manager told everyone to get out, which they all tried to do as they started to go down the stairs but someone from Security announced on the PA system that everyone could go back to their offices and that everything was okay. Mr. Ron Perez, our manager, told all of his employees to keep going down and to get out of the building. I can only surmise why four of them went back. Maybe it was to retrieve some work or to check to make sure everyone had cleared the area, but they never made it out. I was still wandering down Broadway and south, a block near Times Square. No one knew what was happening yet. My cell phone was not working and everyone was screaming that it was a plane but that did not make sense to me – that could not be happening. The police in the area kept telling us to get away, that we were in the front line and the building was about to fall. How could that be, I wondered. A brief moment later my Tower collapsed right in front of my eyes. Luckily, I was standing on the north side as the wind blew the dust and glass south. It was now 9:45 a.m. Fortunately, I met up with a friend and we decided to run to his apartment. Thousands of people were running through the courthouse area and city hall and people were hollering that there were car bombs and the buildings were all going to blow up. We ran through Chinatown and then on to Elizabeth Street and finally made it safely to his apartment. I just wanted to go home to my own apartment as mayjournalist in the Boston University Newsroom program. be someone needed a place to stay, or maybe I could help someone. All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind; I also wanted to pack some clothes and somehow get home to Saugus. Rob and I left his place and headed toward my place. Along the way we stopped at St. Vincent’s Hospital, wanting to donate blood. There were hundreds of people in line and we were all told they were only accepting 0-positive. At this point again I wondered, will I ever make it home? As soon as we arrived at my place, we turned the tv on and, for the first time, we both learned what had happened only one hour ago. I called my boyfriend and he told me to pack up some things, look up a train schedule and take the train that would let me off at the farthest distance from the city. It was Train #2 to Wakefield, Mass., and then I called my parents. It was now 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon of September 11, 2001. At 6:00 p.m., I boarded the train at 242nd Street, the Bronx. The train ride home was the most amazing ride I had ever experienced. At 7:00 p.m. the train stopped and I got off. I called my friend for REFLECTIONS | SEE PAGE 11

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