I don’t know if that’s something to be
proud of but I have the dubious
distinction of being last resident of
Liberty Island yes walking around the
island at night and looking up at the
Statue of Liberty it’s quite an
experience seeing all different ways she
changes some nights she’s actually a
little bit of blue as opposed to green I
had two sets of grandparents that came
through Ellis Island I wonder what they
would think if they found that their
great-grandson was going to be the
steward of the Statue of Liberty and
Ellis Island think about going to a
different country we may not speak the
language and they show up everything
that means the world to them is in this
one one or two bags that they’re
carrying and they’re told to drop those
bags and go upstairs to be processed and
they never even know if they’re ever
going to see that picture of their
parents or their children that they left
behind they’re relying on their faith
that everything’s going to be okay
because this is a country that they want
to come to
it’s been reported that we’ve never lost
a bag on Ellis Island guess the folks
today could learn a thing or two about
keeping tabs on bags everybody came from
someplace in America except the Native
Americans and it’s important to keep
that alive I think I don’t know that our
generation would be as gutsy as they
were to come
my grandmother was 20 and she never went
back to Italy I don’t know why but I got
emotional when I saw it for the first
time I was crossing and I think he was
just part of history it being there and
it was just it was an emotional moment I
mean even me being born here I guess I
put myself in an emotion of all the
people that came by boat and the first
thing they saw was this statue in a
sense walking them to a new new world to
freedom right here at Ellis Island this
is where my family became American my
parents immigrated here from Hong Kong
and China to be able to tell their story
by using the site as a focus I just love
it I mean there’s just no way around it
our ancestors came over in 1914 from
Lithuania when we walked up the steps it
gave you the chills down your spine kind
of what they went through when they came
on the boat and came up here during our
peak emigration period at Ellis Island
we would average between 8 and 10,000
people a day in our biggest visitation
we processed over 12,000 people
today our visitation during the summer
is between 18,000 and 22,000 people a
day
so we’re welcome quite a few of more
people of course we don’t process these
people other than put in through
security
October 29th 2011 we had closed down to
do some life safety renovations
fortunately when Sandy hit none of those
upgrades were damaged but our entire
infrastructure were all destroyed while
it was a very sad day for us we quickly
realized it was also an opportunity to
make this more sustainable Park it was
also kind of moving in this devastation
to see the Statue standing there the
flag still flying proud and defiant and
no storm was going to bother her
proud of but I have the dubious
distinction of being last resident of
Liberty Island yes walking around the
island at night and looking up at the
Statue of Liberty it’s quite an
experience seeing all different ways she
changes some nights she’s actually a
little bit of blue as opposed to green I
had two sets of grandparents that came
through Ellis Island I wonder what they
would think if they found that their
great-grandson was going to be the
steward of the Statue of Liberty and
Ellis Island think about going to a
different country we may not speak the
language and they show up everything
that means the world to them is in this
one one or two bags that they’re
carrying and they’re told to drop those
bags and go upstairs to be processed and
they never even know if they’re ever
going to see that picture of their
parents or their children that they left
behind they’re relying on their faith
that everything’s going to be okay
because this is a country that they want
to come to
it’s been reported that we’ve never lost
a bag on Ellis Island guess the folks
today could learn a thing or two about
keeping tabs on bags everybody came from
someplace in America except the Native
Americans and it’s important to keep
that alive I think I don’t know that our
generation would be as gutsy as they
were to come
my grandmother was 20 and she never went
back to Italy I don’t know why but I got
emotional when I saw it for the first
time I was crossing and I think he was
just part of history it being there and
it was just it was an emotional moment I
mean even me being born here I guess I
put myself in an emotion of all the
people that came by boat and the first
thing they saw was this statue in a
sense walking them to a new new world to
freedom right here at Ellis Island this
is where my family became American my
parents immigrated here from Hong Kong
and China to be able to tell their story
by using the site as a focus I just love
it I mean there’s just no way around it
our ancestors came over in 1914 from
Lithuania when we walked up the steps it
gave you the chills down your spine kind
of what they went through when they came
on the boat and came up here during our
peak emigration period at Ellis Island
we would average between 8 and 10,000
people a day in our biggest visitation
we processed over 12,000 people
today our visitation during the summer
is between 18,000 and 22,000 people a
day
so we’re welcome quite a few of more
people of course we don’t process these
people other than put in through
security
October 29th 2011 we had closed down to
do some life safety renovations
fortunately when Sandy hit none of those
upgrades were damaged but our entire
infrastructure were all destroyed while
it was a very sad day for us we quickly
realized it was also an opportunity to
make this more sustainable Park it was
also kind of moving in this devastation
to see the Statue standing there the
flag still flying proud and defiant and
no storm was going to bother her
Please follow and like us: