Updated: Fort Lee Fireman Starts Facebook Campaign To ‘Pay It Forward’ On 9/11

Editor's Note: This story was originally published on Patch on August 15. At the time, as you will read, Keith Sabatino's Facebook page had almost 14,000 people attending in just the couple of weeks since he rather extemporaneously started it. On Thursday, Sabatino told Patch that number had climbed to over 71,000. By Friday morning, it was up to nearly 74,000. We thought the story was worth another look:

The Deputy Chief of the Fort Lee Fire Department recently took it upon himself to start a Facebook event page called “Pay It Forward” for Sept. 11, and it’s taking off beyond his wildest expectations with nearly 14,000 people and counting planning to participate as of Monday.

“I don't think I need to explain what September 11, 2001 meant to everyone in this country,” Fort Lee Deputy Fire Chief Keith Sabatino writes on the page. “I would like to create a ‘Pay it Forward’ day for the 10 year mark for this event.”

There are four things involved in “paying it forward,” according to the Facebook page, which essentially boil down as follows:

• Look for opportunities to help someone
• Do something nice for someone you don't know and from whom you expect nothing in return
• If the person wants to thank you or pay you back, ask them instead to “pay it forward” by doing something nice for three people they don’t know and asking all three to do the same
• If someone does something nice for you, make a note to perform three acts of kindness for three people you don’t know, and so on

“This event is obviously not about me,” Sabatino said. “It's about others making September 11 a better day. I have a bunch of friends and family that have pushed this after I set it up. It's very cool how it has taken off.”

The Facebook event page has indeed taken off in the two or three weeks since Sabatino came up with the idea while sitting on his couch at home, flipping through channels for something to watch on TV and coming across the title of a 2000 movie starring Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt called Pay It Forward.

“I’ve watched that movie before, and I love that movie,” Sabatino said. “When I saw that, it came to me in seconds. Sept. 11 is a perfect day for an event like that. So I got up off the couch and made a Facebook page, and it’s gone crazy.”

He said his original goal was 1,000 followers, or “attendees” in this case since it’s technically an event—though he also notes the “event” can take place anywhere and anytime. But by the time he spoke with Patch a couple of weeks after setting up the page, that number was already over 5,000, and Sabatino said his next goal was 10,000. He hit that number on Sunday, and as of Monday afternoon the number was rapidly approaching 14,000.

“I’m hoping this event goes crazy,” Sabatino said last week. “I want it to go as big as possible because I think paying it forward, [like] buying somebody a cup of coffee or carrying somebody’s groceries, is the simplest and easiest thing in the world. So we’ll see what happens to it. If it goes 10,000, I want it to hit 100,000, and it just goes forward.”

Sabatino has been particularly pleased with the messages people are posting on the wall of the Facebook page and the fact that people are responding from all over the world.

“People I have no association with whatsoever, which is the coolest thing in the world,” he said. “So it’s just spreading.”

Sabatino added that even the author of the book upon which the movie was based, Catherine Ryan Hyde, is among the thousands who have left comments on the wall.

For Sabatino, as for many people, Sept. 11, 2001 remains vivid in his mind. But unlike some, he was directly involved, both as a member of the volunteer Fort Lee Fire Department, which he said was across the George Washington Bridge after the World Trade Center had been hit but before the towers fell, and as a member of the Fort Lee Ambulance Corps., which on the third day after the collapse of the towers went down to Ground Zero to lend whatever support they could give.

“It’s amazing; I can’t believe it’s 10 years already,” Sabatino said, adding that the 10-year anniversary “seems different, especially in Fort Lee.”

“We’re having the dedication ceremony for the new monument we have, and a lot of towns are doing a lot of dedications this year,” he said. “Ten years is a big chunk of time. It’s still vivid for everybody. I mean if you look at the wall posts that are on my event, it’s just amazing, the outpouring. It’s one of those events in this part of our lifetime that’s like ‘Where were you when this happened?’ because it didn’t just happen in one area. It was three different areas where it happened. The whole country was on shutdown, basically, and I’ll never forget that.”

Sabatino also points out that—as many people have similarly noted in their wall posts on the Facebook page—the concept of “paying it forward” shouldn’t be something people do for special occasions or on just one specific day, although a strong case can be made for the specialness of this particular occasion.

“That is the perfect day for it,” Sabatino said. “But it should continue past that. Just read some of those posts. It’s a 9/11 thing, and how we can show the rest of the world and the rest of America we’re still strong.”

Sabatino, who now owns his own business, said that nearly 10 years ago, in the days immediately after 9/11, he didn’t show up for work for about a week. But his employer knew precisely why and didn’t even ask him to call in because, he said, “that’s what I do.”

“I love being a fireman; it’s my life’s passion to be a fireman,” said Fort Lee’s Deputy Fire Chief. “Firefighters are not just about [being] David people or putting out fires. We try to help however we can. Hopefully this little event will help some people.” 

To learn more about the “Pay it Forward” Sept. 11 event, or to sign on or leave a wall post, visit the “Sept 11 10th year, Pay it forward event” Facebook page.