This is the time of year when we would normally review the top ten stories and local highlights from the past twelve months. This year, history was irrevocably marred by September 11, and all of our top stories revolve around local responses to this catastrophe.

Many of the stories stemming from September 11 underscore the tragic nature of war and chasms in understanding between cultures. But for every tale of heartbreak and devastation, there are several about the buoyancy of the human spirit, even under the darkest circumstances.

We want to review and pay homage to the local heroes and helpers who emerged to assist in the relief effort or who participated in the aftermath of the tragedy in some way. At a time when the entire nation was rallied together, our community played its part at the local, state and national level.

• On September 13, the first issue of the paper to publish after terrorism shook the nation, the community reacted in a variety of ways.

"There really aren't words," said Cooperstown Central School superintendent Mary Jo McPhail. "It hasn't really sunk in yet."

Children in grades kindergarten through three were not made aware of the terrorism at school on Tuesday. Elementary school principal Teresa Gorman spoke with older students, and junior high and high school students discussed the day's tragic events in their classrooms, with teachers.

Mayor Wendell Tripp said there is nothing that can be done to prevent terrorism unless fundamental changes are made in laws governing freedom of individuals.

Flags were lowered to half-staff.

We didn't know then about the anthrax scare right around the corner.

• Jennifer and Jonathan Svahn are CCS graduates who went on to become physicians in New York City.

Dr. Jonathan Svahn, a 1987 graduate of Cooperstown Central School, first witnessed the end of New York as we know it through the windows of Bellevue's intensive care unit, which afforded a "perfect view" of the World Trade Center. Braced for a barrage of victims, doctors across the city waited with emergency plans in place on Tuesday morning. The absence of patients led them to a chilling realization: people had either made it mostly unhurt, or they had not.

Dr. Jennifer Svahn, Jonathan's sister, graduated from CCS in 1983. Now a vascular surgeon at Beth Israel, she was at her Brooklyn Heights home reading a book to her son Jack early Tuesday morning. Her husband, Dr. Jeff Nicastro, head of trauma and surgical emergency at Staten Island University Hospital, was already gone for the day when the family's nanny arrived with a frantic announcement: a plane had hit the World Trade Center.

Both Svahns assumed they'd be enacting emergency plans put into place for possible terrorism during the millennium celebration, which had proven to be a non-event. But they got to work, and waited, and waited. Nobody, it seemed, was turning out for medical treatment. Victims had either made it out alive, or they had not.

On Wednesday, September 12, Jennifer Svahn went to the site known by then as Ground Zero to take pictures. Some of her shots wound up in the New York Times. Journalists were not yet permitted at Ground Zero. Svahn, a surgeon, had access.

"As a surgeon, the body parts have much less of an impact," said Jennifer Svahn, echoing her brother's sentiment. "But the grandiosity of the absolute destruction of Manhattan, which used to be unthinkablewe thought we were safe. The skyline is unrecognizable. And you just get lost in the carnage. It's hard to know where you are. Everything isolated, deserted, it's a white ghost town. Food carts were abandoned, stores were just sitting there deserted with their doors open, cars were incinerated and flipped over, windows were busted out. On the positive side, New York's tremendous division along racial, economic, religious and gender lines are just gone. Everyone talks to everyone. Everyone is looking for something, for someone. People are being kind. The cops are being really decent. Everybody is involved, they all want to help. This couldn't possibly be me walking in this film set, I think, but it is. This is the first time in a long time I've felt any collective public respect. It's a notable feeling that we, as doctors, discuss among ourselves."

The Svahns come from a long line of physicians. Their mother, Karin, was a nurse. Their father, Dr. David Svahn, conducted an assembly that same week at Bassett Hospital aimed at deciphering nineteenth century medical jargon to diagnose the final illness of America's first great literary figure, James Fenimore Cooper, on the 150th anniversary of his death.

• Ambulance workers go to NYC

A week after September 11, a four-man ambulance crew from Cooperstown Medical Transport got a close-up look at what people around the world had been watching on television and seeing in newspapers.

The crew left Cooperstown as part of a contingent of 21 ambulances from the United New York Ambulance Network and headed to Manhattan to provide some relief for crews on duty almost around the clock since last Tuesday's terrorist attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center.

But watching the scenes of the devastation of the 110-story buildings on television in no way prepares you for the reality of it, said paramedic and crew leader Paul Merwin of Davenport.

"I was overwhelmed. What you see in the paper doesn't do it justice. It does not prepare you for the scope of it," he said. Merwin said he was at the scene of the D&H train wreck and explosion in Oneonta years ago, but it in no way compared to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Merwin was joined by critical care technician Melvin Harrington from Walton and EMTs Josh Flint of Cherry Valley and Damon West of Oneonta.

"The best were the people who live there," said Merwin. "People lined the streets. Thousands of people were cheering the ambulances when they went by."

The crew was able to find time to see Ground Zero and watch the rescue and clean up efforts.

The four talked in reverent tones about meeting some New York City fire captains of almost legendary stature. Men whose faces were showing signs of stress and fatigue after days on the scene hoping to find survivors and lost comrades.

• Flagrun

Flag Across America was featured on Bryant Gumbel's CBS Early Show and in USA Today, and it was organized by Cooperstown graduate Michael Burr, a pilot for American Airlines and former Navy pilot.

"After what happened on September 11, I didn't know how to react. My wife Diane and I had just seen an old friend of mine who spent thirty-two years in the Navy and another thirty as an American Airlines pilot a week or so before the tragedy. A few days later, we found out that he and his wife had been passengers aboard Flight 77 that flew into the Pentagon," Burr said.

The run stitched from one side of the nation to the other in two months. When it started on October 11, Burr ran up to 37 miles a day for the first few days. He ran alone through the Holland Tunnel, which was still closed at that time, and was joined by other runners at Ground Zero. Someone was always carrying the flag during the run.

In Ardmore, Oklahoma, there's a football arena bigger than Shea Stadium, Burr said, and when the runners arrived at 11:00 at night it was packed with people.

"We ran through," Burr said. "We thought there was a football game. But it turns out there wasn't. They were there to see us."

Paul Heath, head of the Survivor's Association in Oklahoma City, gave runners a tour of the memorial site where cement chairs commemorate the lives lost in the Oklahoma City bombing.

"We were given a huge quilt with a hand holding a flag," Burr said. "It was huge, symbolic and moving."

Burr made his way back to the northeast to participate in a statue dedication in New York City's Central Park. The statue commemorates the New York Marathon.

• Jim Seward visits Ground Zero

Senator James L. Seward was five blocks away from the World Trade Center on September 11.

On Wednesday, he returned to the site as part of a tour hosted by Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"The mood was completely different this time," said Seward. "I'm here with thirty five or forty members of the senate, and we're all, Republicans and Democrats, together on this. On September 11 it was panic and sheer turmoil, today it's very orderly, with the rescue workers doing so much. You feel helpless, all we can do is salute them and applaud for the wonderful job they're doing under such dire circumstances."

Seward, who called from Ground Zero to do this interview, said that the feeling of standing on the final resting place of at least 6,000 people is an unforgettable one.

"Being here is completely different than what you see on television," said Seward. "Getting a first hand look at the disruption and damage really changes your perspective. There are guards armed with machine guns at the site. There has been a tremendous human loss of life and now the rebuilding effort needs to take place."

Seward said the sight was very sobering.

• Tim Fischer and his dog, Max

Reports of depression among search dogs on the scene at Ground Zero were not accurate, said New York state police technical sergeant Timothy Fischer.

Fischer facilitates the New York State K-9 Training Center in Middlefield and was planning to host an open house to introduce the handlers and their dogs to the community. Instead, they found themselves seeking signs of life and death amid the ashy remains of the World Trade Center.

Fischer set up a command post in a mobile trailer three blocks from the site now known as Ground Zero early in the morning of the day after the attack.

"There aren't any other dog schools like ours in the state," said Fischer, who also trains dogs and their handlers from other states.

Responding to reports that dogs at the site seemed depressed because the gloomy mood of their handlers affects them, Fischer said, "In theory, dogs do respond to the emotions of their handlers. But we're a quasi-military operation, and we try to keep the emotional effects to a minimum."

"The dogs need to have a win every twenty minutes in order to keep their spirits and morale up," Fischer said. The dogs know they are searching for something specific, and if they don't find it within that time frame, handlers provide them with the scent to keep them on track. Fischer said that the dogs in his unit and other official K-9 units would not have been depressed at the site because preventative measures are always used.

• Eric and Noelle Hage. Fire Dept visiting.

New York City firefighters took a break from their grim work at Ground Zero long enough to visit Cooperstown late in October. They attended the World Series Gala at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and lodged in a variety of local homes and B&B's.

The visit was arranged by Noelle and Eric Hage, who live in Cooperstown and New York City and knew eight of those who perished on September 11. Noelle's brother-in-law, Mark Montgomery. is a firefighter from Queens Ladder 165, Engine 317, Battalion 54. He and his fellow firefighters enjoyed respite in Cooperstown.

Noelle Hage was amazed and heartened by the response of the community as she planned the weekend retreat. Children made posters and neighbors prepared food, donated rooms and pitched in to help in a variety of other ways. Myles Carroll named his puppy FDNY in honor of the firefighters' work and visit. The guests left a banner across Main Street to thank the town.

• A variety of local people and organizations raised funds and donated goods and services. Poems and letters were written as people expressed their shock, outrage and determination to persevere. As we begin the New Year and put these tragic events in perspective, our society, both locally and nationally, has been changed forever. Here's to hoping that in 2002, we put the lessons of 2001 into practice.