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CNN Live At Daybreak
Spirit of America: Jeremy Glick's Family Has Set Up Foundation to Honor Him and Help Young People at Same Time
Aired November 08, 2001 - 08:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Jeremy Glick has been hailed as one of the heroes of United Airlines flight 93. Now his family has set up a foundation to honor him and help young people at the same time. Authorities believe Glick, seen here with his infant daughter, joined other passengers in challenging the hijackers onboard the September 11th flight. As you might remember, that plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field. Many people in the government suspect that plane was actually headed for a site in Washington, either the White House or Camp David.
And Jennifer Glick is Jeremy's sister. She's here, along with her brother Jared, to tell us a little bit about the foundation they call Jeremy's heroes.
Good to see you all.
How is your family doing?
JENNIFER GLICK, JEREMY'S SISTER: They're doing well. I mean, they are moving forward and trying to perpetuate some of the positives that Jeremy showed the country.
ZAHN: You come from such a close-knit family.
You obviously all want your brother's legacy to be honored. Exactly what does the foundation do?
GLICK: it is called Jeremy's Heroes and the purpose of the foundation...
ZAHN: Let's hold up one of these T-shirts so you can see the logo. Here we go.
GLICK: As you can see, it's a man holding a child reaching for the stars, and the purpose of the foundation is to help children, school-aged children, who are in some form of athletics or sports, and their pursuing that sport, and they are meeting some kind of a financial barrier that is stopping them from excelling, and once -- and we plan to award scholarships to either those children or teams taken on a individual basis, and once the scholarship is awarded, then we are going to ask that athlete or team to give back to their community through their sport, in whatever way they can imagine. ZAHN: It's a great idea, and I think and what the audience needs to understand is how darn athletic everybody in your family was. Your brother Jeremy was a phenomenal athlete. What were his strengths as an athlete? And you can walk us through the rest of the family lineage to understand just what great athletes you are.
JARED GLICK, JEREMY'S BROTHER: He excelled in judo. He wrestled in high school, played soccer, played lacrosse, and in judo, he won the 1993 national judo championships, and you know he had a chance to train for the Olympics. but money, came in as a factor.
It's a big barrier, especially in a large family. There is six of us, so for anybody to do one sport, you know.
ZAHN: And as we talk about how challenging it is for families, where you know, you reach a point where you can't excel any further than your high school athletic department; you need that outside help.
Let's look at pictures of your sister Joanna who joined us several weeks ago, who is a phenomenal skater. Now she is at the point where if she got the right amount of support, she could go professional, right?
JARED GLICK: If she wanted to, yes, clearly, .
ZAHN: She's a beautiful, beautiful athlete.
Did Jeremy feel like he ran up against a barrier after he had won that national title, might he had gone further with that, maybe competed at an Olympic level?
JARED GLICK: I think so. I mean, he was invited to go to Colorado Springs, but, you know, I don't know, there are many factors, but one of them I'm sure was money. To go out there and train, you have to be able to work and support yourself, and at the time, he was not...
JENNIFER GLICK: You know, other countries support their athletes, and we do support our athletes, but not on such a huge level.
ZAHN: Most of them are sponsored by states, you know, by governments.
JENNIFER GLICK: Yes. So we hope to eliminate whatever barrier there is for that is stop someone from excelling, and it can be on the most tiniest level, you know, maybe a soccer team that doesn't have nets, to, you know, my sister, who is pursuing skating, as long as we can deal with the Olympic Committee rules, and that's what we are looking to do. And in doing so, we are hoping to sort of carry on what Jeremy did. You know, he used athletics to compose himself in probably the most incredibly stressful situation there is, and he managed to convey to his wife, his love, and his daughter, his love, and then use his athletics to do what he did on that plane with the other passengers. So you know, sports has always enhanced our lives, and I think it will enhance all children's lives, and then using those sports to give back to their community represents really what he did. You know, Jeremy sacrificed his life to help countless others, and we are hoping that children can find that within themselves.
ZAHN: What do you miss most about your brother?
JARED GLICK: A lot, probably most just seeing him smile, a big smile. It was warming to see.
ZAHN: And I think this graphic on the T-shirt is so powerful, because he really did reach for the stars, didn't he?
JARED GLICK: Yes.
ZAHN: But you knew he had the strength, even before he was so sorely tested.
JENNIFER GLICK: Well, he celebrated life. He enjoyed every day of his life, and he clearly reached for everything, you know, he could get, so that's what we hope the foundation is going to do.
ZAHN: In addition to his brothers and sisters, his mother and father, he left behind a wife with a four-month-old baby daughter.
How is Jeremy's wife doing?
JARED GLICK: I spoke to her yesterday, she is just taking some time, and she is down in South Carolina just relaxing I guess from everything that has gone on. It's been a mad rush of just everything, and people coming, and wanting to talk to her, see her, and you know, she just needs time to settle back, and figure out what to do.
ZAHN: She is entitled to that.
JENNIFER GLICK: Yes, and she was Jeremy's perfect match, you know, so everything that we see in Jeremy, the phone call couldn't have happened unless Liz was on the other side. You know, and so she is going to come back and enjoy every day, and you know, do everything that we hope Americans are doing, and not stalling in the tragedy.
ZAHN: Before we let you go, how can people contribute to this foundation? Do you find it on the Web?
JENNIFER GLICK: Yes, we are on www.jeremy'sheroes.com. They can reach us at 1-866-330-HERO. That's a toll-free number. We are looking for corporate sponsorship, donations, donations of ideas, and the children, you know. We are looking for coaches to refer, teachers to refer, towns to refer, and we are going to take it from there.
ZAHN: Wouldn't it be nice if 20 years down the road, you see some Olympian mounting the platform with a gold medal wrapped around...
JENNIFER GLICK: That is what we want for Jeremy's daughter. ZAHN: Thank you very much for sharing part of your brother's legacy with us this morning.
Good luck with the foundation, and thank you for the T-shirt as well. I will proudly wear it.
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