Girl takes a stand for victims of Sept. 11 tragedy

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BANGOR – Confidently, Alyssa strikes the chords on the grand piano in the auditorium at John Bapst Memorial High School.

In the clear voice of an 11-year-old, she starts the first verse she wrote about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and this country’s response:

As I’m standing in the street

There is rubble all around

There are people lying on the ground.

Alyssa continues to sing, and on the chorus, 9-year-old Breanne chimes in:

We’re a country that stands for its people

Yes, we stand, yes, we stand, yes, we stand.

‘Cause our hearts beat true for the red, white and blue.

Yes, we stand, yes, we stand, yes, we stand.

The little song that was heard around the world on CNN didn’t start out to be a CD, much less a video, but “Yes, We Stand” has taken on a life of its own since it aired during a news segment on WVII Channel 7, then was picked up by other stations and CNN.

Then the American Red Cross came calling, and now the composer is hoping that sales of the CD and video will help those most affected by the tragedies.

That Alyssa and Breanne are musical is no surprise – their father has been a music teacher in the Bangor area for many years. Alyssa loves jazz and Breanne, who adores opera, is a fan of young singer Charlotte Church.

But there is no pressure on the girls to write music. Alyssa takes piano lessons – not from her father – and the experience she has in combining melody and lyrics comes from using an interactive computer program she enjoys.

So which came first, the words or the tune?

“It all really came to me at the same time,” Alyssa said. When her dad came home from work a few days after the attacks, the young girl said she wanted to play him something on the piano.

“I was behind her, crying,” he recalled of hearing “Yes, We Stand” for the first time. He asked his wife to come hear Alyssa’s song, and she was moved, as well.

Alyssa didn’t make a big effort to teach the song to Breanne, she said, but “she just started singing it, too,” Alyssa said. “She’d heard it enough times,” she said with a chuckle.

With so many efforts springing up to raise money for the victims’ families, it didn’t take long for Alyssa’s family to decide to contribute her song.

The Red Cross can’t designate the money as specifically as she might wish, but in her heart Alyssa has some hopes about the kinds of things the money might do for the children affected.

“Everything their mom and dad would have bought them,” she said quietly, “from school and stuff to going to college.”

Early on, her family considered setting up a separate, nonprofit organization to handle the project. But doing so would have been complicated and expensive, Alyssa’s dad said, and creating an organization “wasn’t the point.”

Then Jerry Jarrell, board member for the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross, saw the girls on WABI Channel 5, and asked the family if they could sing the song at the fourth annual Heroes Breakfast on Nov. 14 at the Bangor Civic Center.

This year, in addition to recognizing local people who have performed acts of heroism, the event will make a presentation to a member of the New York Fire Department on behalf of all the firefighters who worked to save lives on Sept. 11. The Red Cross also has invited family members of the men who resisted the terrorists aboard Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

The breakfast is always a special event, Jarrell said, “but this year, I guarantee there won’t be a dry eye in the house.” The breakfast is already sold out.

The Red Cross also has given Alyssa the connection enabling her to make sure her CD and video will benefit families. The video includes a montage of images, not only from New York but also from patriotic events and a few local scenes in Maine.

Susan Bell, development director for the Pine Tree Chapter, was very moved when she saw the video for the first time last week.

“It reminds you why we’re doing what we’re doing,” she said of the mission of the Red Cross.

Alyssa’s parents said they were pleased that such a worthy organization would help with the project. Others lending their assistance, they said, include David Simpson, the staff of WVII, Bronson Communications, Merrill Merchants Bank, John Nickerson, John Bapst, Interactive Marketing Group, Bangor Photo, Voyager Call Center, New England School of Communications, Snowman Printing and Jerry Jarrell.

The girls’ parents were pleased that the effort received attention from CNN, but for safety reasons have decided not to allow their last names or the town where they live to be used.

In addition, the decision creates a buffer so that the family isn’t overwhelmed with requests for the girls to perform or take part in activities. But the girls’ parents are pleased that they can perform the song for the Red Cross event.

Like many other people, young Alyssa was at a loss when she heard about the terrorist attacks, and about all the families who were affected. But there was something she could do.

“I wrote the song because I felt I had to do something to express myself, and music is the best way to express myself,” she said.

The CD and video of “Yes, We Stand” are available at Borders Books and Music, at Sam Goody and at The Grasshopper Shop, all in Bangor. The cost of each is $18, and the items may be ordered by check from Yes We Stand, P.O. Box 165, Carmel, ME 04419. To order by credit card, call (800) 361-9179. Purchasers also may order through the Web site, www.yeswestand.com.