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Brooks-Jones received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador for her efforts in helping the students of the area.
When Dublin resident Shirley Brooks-Jones boarded a plane in Frankfurt, Germany, 20 years ago, she never imagined that life would forever change that day forward.
The day was Sept. 11, 2001.
Halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, Brooks-Jones’ plane was instructed to divert its course and land on the island of Newfoundland off the eastern coast of Canada.
The first World Trade Center tower had been struck and US air space was closed.
“As a kid (in 1945), I remember this big airplane flying into the Empire State Building,” says Brooks-Jones. “Well, on 9/11, the captain on our plane came on and told us what had happened, and I couldn’t believe it. I was thinking this must be an accident like the other one was.”
For the first 28 hours after landing in the Gander International Airport, passengers of Delta Flight 15 sat on the tarmac alongside 38 other large-bodied planes whose trans-Atlantic flights had also been diverted.
“One male passenger keeps comparing this to Pearl Harbor,” wrote Brooks-Jones in the journal she kept throughout the ordeal. “Rumor has it that one hijacked plane crashed into the Trade Center at 8:45 a.m., then the Pentagon at 9 a.m., but who knows for sure?”
Two hours later, Brooks-Jones writes, “World Trade Centers have collapsed after two planes crashed into them.”
Seemingly worlds away from the tragedy in New York, Brooks-Jones and her fellow passengers tried calling their loved ones to let them know they were safe. Meanwhile, on the ground below, Newfoundlanders were coming together to support the passengers who they began to call the plane people.
“(The Newfoundlanders) certainly were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination,” says Brooks-Jones, “but they provided everything for us. I mean, we didn’t have our luggage, we didn’t have anything except our clothes on our backs.”
When the passengers deboarded the planes, school buses were waiting to take them in to the small towns and villages which had been preparing homes, schools, churches and other buildings to host the plane people for the next few days until airspace was opened again and they could travel back to the United States.
“People had cleared their own homes of all their towels and washcloths, their pillows, their blankets, everything they had they brought in,” says Brooks-Jones. “They brought in shampoo and razors and toothpaste and everything – even diapers and sanitary napkins and everything that they thought the plane people would need, which was absolutely everything.”
Brooks-Jones recalls that passengers who didn’t even have a change of clothes with them were taken to Walmart and local stores to get what they needed.
“They wouldn’t charge you for anything,” says Brooks-Jones. “The doctor wouldn’t charge for her services, and the pharmacist filled those prescriptions. Nobody would take any money for anything.”
The plane people stayed in Newfoundland for six days until they finally got word they could go home.
“Days later, when we finally got the word that we would leave, we wanted to give some money to help defray the expenses and nobody would take anything,” says Brooks-Jones. “They just looked at us and they said, ‘No, you would do the same for us.’”
When she got back on the airplane and up to cruising altitude, Brooks-Jones says she began brainstorming with her fellow passengers as to how they could thank the people who so graciously took them in.
“We had to do something, but they didn’t want us to do something,” she says. “So, how do you do something for some- body who doesn’t want you to do it? How do you do it without offending their dignity? That’s the most important thing.”
One of the passengers told Brooks-Jones that he learned a lot of kids in the Lewisporte area dropped out before graduating high school because there just weren’t that many jobs available. Brooks-Jones was reminded of her childhood when her parents uprooted the family from the Hocking Hills area to Columbus because that’s where they could find employment.
“It took me back to where I grew up, the job situation,” she says. “I thought, if you show a kid a chance, you could give them a chance, just a little touch of it, other things will follow.”
So, Brooks-Jones suggested they create a scholarship to award to high school students in the Gander and Lewisporte areas. Brooks-Jones had previous fundraising experience, so she knew where to begin. She had worked in fundraising at her previous job at The Ohio State University and as a former co-chair of the campus campaign council. Passengers around her immediately liked the idea and were soon passing pledge sheets around the plane.
“Those pledge sheets went through that plane like crazy,” says Brooks-Jones. “We picked up the sheets and it was something over about $15,000.”
Photos courtesy of Shirley Brooks-Jones
Brooks-Jones visiting the first class of scholarship recipients in 2002.
When Brooks-Jones landed back in Columbus, she reached out to the Columbus Foundation for help in setting the scholarship up.
“They embraced the story like you would not believe,” she says. “Right from the very beginning, they said, ‘We will help you.’ What they did, I knew how I wanted to set the scholarship up, but they were able to do the legal stuff and set up the fund.”
The endowed scholarship, first called the Gander Flight 15 Scholarship but now recognized as the Lewisporte Area Flight 15 Scholarship, is presented to high school seniors near the end of their senior year. Brooks-Jones says she wanted to award as many scholarships as possible each year.
“(The passenger who suggested the scholarship) said, ‘I was thinking maybe we could help one or two kids,’ and I said, ‘One or two? After all they’ve done for us?’” says Brooks-Jones. “They put their lives on hold to help us.”
The first scholarships were awarded in 2002, recognizing 14 Lewisporte Collegiate High School seniors.
“We wanted to present the first scholarships the following year, no matter how much those scholarships would be,” Brooks-Jones says. “We knew they’d be small, but we wanted to do it, so that’s what we did.”
Raymond G. LaVoie
Now, 20 years later, 341 students have received the scholarship. Brooks-Jones, who does not have children, rejoices in the students’ successes as if they were her own. “The kids have gone into all different fields,” she says. “We’ve got three or four who are medical doctors. We’ve got teachers, engineers.”
One year, Brooks-Jones remembers presenting the scholarship to a set of twins. A few years later, a woman approached her and thanked her profusely, explaining that all three of her children had been awarded the scholarship.
“She was the mother of the twins! And I said, ‘What are they doing?’” Brooks- Jones says. “The daughter was teaching. The younger daughter was still in university, and the boy was working on his Ph.D. in geophysics.”
Shortly after presenting the first scholarship, Brooks-Jones moved from Upper Arlington to Dublin, and has felt the support of her neighbors and community since day one.
“All of my neighbors around here, when they found out about this, they’ve been so supportive,” she says. “So utterly supportive.” Almost every year, Brooks-Jones has retraced her steps and flown back to Newfoundland to present the scholarships and thank as many Newfoundlanders as she can, because her gratitude for their generosity is endless.
“I think about all of these people, and they were so young. So unusual,” she says. “They just wanted to help, and they didn’t want anything for it. It’s just the way they are.”
Sarah Robinson is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com.
