More than 300 students, faculty, staff and friends attended a program Wednesday evening to recognize the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The university invited a speaker who experienced great trauma to talk to students about dealing with adversity.
Amy Stapleton, who works with Student Counseling Services, introduced the speaker. Stapleton went to a conference in October 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. There she encountered Rob Fazio, whose father was killed during the attacks.
“I met Rob at that conference, and I was energized and motivated to come forth and help others through counseling,” Stapleton said.
Ronald Fazio, Rob’s father, was an accountant who worked on the 99th floor of the South Tower in New York. When the first plane struck the North Tower, Ronald Fazio held the door open for every one of his co-workers. While he was getting out of the building, the second plane struck the South Tower and the debris fell on Ronald Fazio, killing him.
Rob Fazio has taken the inspiration from his father and started an organization called Hold the Door for Others Inc.
Loss and adversity affect us all, and it becomes a spark for growth, he said.
“Death is the only certain thing in life,” Fazio said.
People always asked Fazio if he got angry about his father dying.
“I never got angry. People think that I’m bizarre,” he said. “I always loved people, and I always loved helping people.”
Fazio said this was partly due to the type of person he was, and it was also due to the memory of his father.
“I wanted his legacy to be a lot if he couldn’t be here,” he added.
Now, Fazio travels around talking to people about his experiences. People get so caught up in who they are that they can’t see the defining principles of their lives. The better someone prepares now, the better that person will be able to deal with adversity, he said.
“Helping others is a phenomenal way to help yourself feel better,” Fazio said.
He said that during the first six months, people talked a lot about Hurricane Katrina, and they are also talking about it now during the one-year anniversary, but what about the six months in between?
“Each year beyond the event, there are less people that care about it. That’s just the way the world works,” he said.
Relationships are very important during times of adversity because people can help each other, connect, care and challenge themselves. Even though events like Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina are terrible, there is always hope, he said.
“What the terrorists didn’t realize when the two towers got knocked down is that they just created more community,” he said.