A Carrier of Critical U.S. History

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Greg Carafallo. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Once a corporate employee, 66-year-old Greg Carafello has been a small business owner and entrepreneur for nearly 45 years. He has started seven businesses over the course of his career, one of which was on the 18th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Greg and his employees survived that day, but his lifelong best friend, James Martello, who also worked in the building, never made it home.

Not long after it opened 14 years ago, Greg started volunteering at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, going through extensive training before serving over 1,550 hours. As a museum docent, he walks visitors from all over the world through the museum, giving context to exhibits and answering questions.

His dedication inspired his oldest child to visit the week it opened and his youngest to follow in his docent footsteps as a high schooler. They’re a tight knit family, and two of his four kids are now in business with him. Greg still owns three different companies, and every other Friday, he remains committed to sharing information about the day that changed everything. Today, when he’s working, he sits on the 85th floor of One World Trade Center, the building he once fled, just a short walk from the museum and memorial that quiets his mind and brings him peace. Greg will always remember, and thanks in part to him, so will the rest of the world.

What inspires you to volunteer?

My father volunteered. He coached and helped out with various things. I’ve been coaching football since my early twenties, though not continuously. I also coached lacrosse for about 14 years and baseball in between.
I’ve always given business classes at colleges–how to franchise, run a business, sell a business–and helped certain professors out. I was also on the board of the Independent College Fund of New Jersey that generated about $3 million in scholarships. As much as you give, you get back in spades, and I try to give as much as I can.

Tell us about your volunteer role with the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

I started in September 2012. As a museum docent, my job is to teach visitors what happened that day and about all the artifacts. We’re educators, so we want to make sure that we’re accurate.

Training was four hours every Sunday for five months, and then it was four hours of study after that, special events, field trips, and tests. It was hard. The museum wasn’t open when our class went into the docent program, so we were working from books and pictures and having special investigators coming in from the FBI and CIA. Some photos were being released for the first time.

I volunteer in the museum all morning until about 1 pm, then I visit one or two schools around New York City and the outskirts to educate people with a short presentation. I go to Jersey City, too, where my wife is a teacher.

For years, I volunteered every Friday, but since COVID, it’s been every other Friday. And we fill in when we can–special events or whatever else is needed. We all support and learn from each other. We’ll shadow, listen, and advise. There’s a very high level of professionalism and respect for the environment.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I’m a survivor of 9/11; I was in the building that day. There were 407 tenants or businesses in the seven buildings of the World Trade Center campus, and my digital printing company was one of them. We’d been in business for 14 or 15 years. Thankfully, most of my employees were not in, and the one who was got out safely.

For a long time, I had zero interest in going back to Manhattan at all, but in 2007, I bought a business there. Then, I started volunteering and engaging myself more and more, and when I had the ability to sign a lease back in the building in May 2015, I did. I’m still the only business tenant from 9/11 to return to the Trade Center.

When the opportunity to volunteer at the memorial came about, I felt the pull to go back. There are seven of us together almost every Friday. We call ourselves Friday’s Finest and have become very close friends.

It’s been 25 years since the attack. There are generations who don’t know the details. I provide context and help people understand what happened. And it’s cathartic. It gives me a chance to digest that day and the pain, suffering, and loss.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

For four or five hours every week or two, I’m completely engrossed in presenting the proper information and in a way that isn’t overwhelming. I don’t think about work or anything else. I’m disconnected. It’s wonderful.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

There are so many people that really care about doing a good job as volunteers. I’ve also learned that, as a social mechanism for people as they get older, it’s something that everyone should do in some capacity.

The rewards of volunteering are huge. My wife has been a Girl Scout leader for 35 years. We both volunteer. It’s part of life. It’s the quality of life it allows you to live.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

No matter how busy you are, dedicating yourself to a volunteer initiative like this is healthy. To commit yourself to something that is an educational resource like this, that allows you to not do anything but think about this, is extremely rewarding internally.

We just want to continue to make sure people understand that freedom is not free. People pay the price. It’s normally warriors, but on this day, it was just people going to work.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Greg? Find local volunteer opportunities.