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Work Near End for Salvation Army Ground Zero Tent (2002-05-13 14:25:01) (Posted by: The Salvation Army) NEW YORK (Reuters) - For the hundreds of volunteers who have put their lives on hold since Sept. 11, the closing of the Salvation Army's rest-and-relaxation tent at ground zero will be like the end of an era. "It became its own little community and it's still like that today," said Jennifer Spano, a supervisor at the tent, who began working as a volunteer two days after the attack on New York's World Trade Center that killed more than 2,800 people and destroyed the 110-story twin towers. Spano said she did not think twice about giving up her job of running a small business developing technology for the casino industry. "I ripped off the jewelry and just began," she said. But as the recovery effort winds down at ground zero -- the site where the World Trade Center once stood -- the dome-like tent that has provided round-the-clock food and shelter to thousands of recovery workers must wind down too. Officials have not yet released a date for when the recovery effort at ground zero will end, but have said it could be within a matter of weeks. With that, the hundreds of volunteers who have religiously trekked there every day since the tent opened in December as the main focal point of support for the recovery effort, will have to pack up their belongings and go home. "It may sound a terrible thing to say but it's been a joy to come here and help, even though there's been so much sadness," said Fay Sladowski, a volunteer Salvation Army worker from Forest Hills, New York, who serves meals at the tent on Mondays and Wednesdays. She said her first day was like "walking into another world" as the 35,000-square-foot (3,252-square-meter) white dome, dubbed the Taj Mahal, unfolded before her. Sladowski said she would always remember serving lunch to a firefighter one day, when she overheard a request on his radio to send an honor guard to ground zero -- a signal the remains of a firefighter had been found. At that moment, hundreds of firefighters simultaneously stood up from their tables and marched one by one, as if on autopilot, back to ground zero. "How can you ever forget anything like that?" she said, shaking her head. THE PILGRIMAGE Sladowski's words were echoed by other volunteers at the tent, many of whom left their homes and families to make the pilgrimage to New York when they saw the first pictures on television that fateful day in September. "I got off the bus ... and the next thing I knew I was washing dishes 15 hours a day," said Elijah Prophet, who came to New York from Ohio in October and has not left since. The Jamaican-born Prophet lives in temporary housing paid for by the Salvation Army, while friends he has met along the way chip in for his laundry. He calls his work a "spiritual assignment" and said he could not find the words to describe what it had been like in the tent all these months. "Put it this way -- I don't have any fears about life after this," he said, his smile revealing a toothless grin. It takes 50 volunteers like Prophet to staff the cavernous tent each day, with as many as 500 recovery workers inside at any given moment -- eating, sleeping, taking a shower or stealing a private moment to talk to an on-site counselor. Some are just happy to sit and read the handmade cards sent daily by children from all over the United States. Local restaurants have also played their part, providing the food the Salvation Army needs to serve the average 3,500 meals it churns out every day. Without the volunteers, the recovery workers say they could not have gotten through. "The dome is just a dome, it's what's inside the dome that counts," Richard Ostrander, a dock builder in New York said as he dove into a plate of lasagna. Ostrander -- who said he had been working at ground zero 12 hours a day, seven days a week since Sept. 11 -- makes a point of thanking every volunteer he encounters. "I always try to explain to them that they're just as important to this operation as we are, because without them, without the support we get from them, we wouldn't be able to do it," he said. MOVING ON The recovery workers, like the volunteers, face a painful process once the work at ground zero is over. As Ostrander put it, "What do you do the day after you have finished the most important job of your life?" "It's kind of hard to get motivated for the next job, when it's building the foundation for a post office or doing some street work," he said. Ostrander said plans were in the works to set up a mental health facility, with counseling available for workers after the site closes. "We'll just deal with it one day at a time, but it's not going to be easy," he said. Similar plans were afoot for volunteers, to enable them to keep in touch and provide support for one another, said Spano. "When it's time to go, it's time to go," she says philosophically. "At some point this does need to end."