NEW YORK - A new scholarship, established in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, honors the memory of those who died amid a 9/11-related illness by supporting the higher education endeavors of children and grandchildren.
The inaugural September 11th Descendants Scholarship is being provided to six recipients, with each receiving $25,000 in college tuition awards. The ceremony takes place the evening of Sept. 2 at 3 World Trade Center.
The $150,000 donation came from the Barasch & McGarry Charitable Foundation.
The honorees are independently selected by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Visionary Leadership Council, the recipients are graduating high school seniors whose families lost loved ones to 9/11-related
illnesses. The awards honor those loved ones while helping the next generation pursue higher education.
"For these young men and woman, they have no memory of 9/11. They weren't alive," said Michael Barasch of Barasch & McGarry law firm. "Their only memory is watching a parent or grandparent die of an 9/11 illness."
Some 9,677 people have died since their exposure to the toxic mix of chemicals and irritants at Ground Zero, according to July 2026 data, the latest available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In memory of a grandfather
Domenick Masiello, a Tappan Zee High School graduate and Blauvelt resident, is a September 11th Descendants Scholarship recipient.
His grandfather, Domenick Zernone, for whom he is named, was an IBEW Local 3 electrician, foreman, and general foreman who worked at Ground Zero restoring the subway and emergency radio signals for NYC first responders.
Zernone developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, which was attributed to his 9/11-related service. He died in June 2021 with leukemia and COVID.
Masiello was 11 when his grandfather died. Now 18, he attends Lafayette College and is majoring in mechanical engineering. He called the scholarship lifesaving and said his grandfather was his hero.
"It really meant the world to me," Masiello said. "College is so, so, so expensive. It felt so amazing."
The fact that the scholarship is connected to Zernone's 9/11 service, Masiello said, is just another way his grandfather helped him. "My grandpa, even though he's not around, he really is helping us."
Masiello said Zernone fostered his interest in engineering. They built Lego together, constructed a train out of boxes that won Cottage Lane Elementary School's "cardboard creation competition" when Masiello was in third grade and helped him take second place twice in the Pinewood Derby.
Masiello recalled learning about the 9/11 attacks in elementary school. Knowing his grandfather's work at Ground Zero, and the illness it caused, helped make a connection. "The people I was learning about, was hearing about wasn't just somebody in a book. I was learning what heroism was in school and then living with someone living the consequences at home."
9/11 scholarship awardees
These are the 2026 inaugural September 11th Descendants Scholarship awardees:
- Thomas Sheehan from Rumson, New Jersey,lost his mother, Delia Tanger, a Battery Park resident, to colorectal cancer in April 2026. Thomas was planning to attend New Jersey Institute of Technology.
- Ian Dannenfelser, of Baltimore, Maryland,lost his grandfather, Gene, a Camden Fire Department responder, to lung cancer in 2017. He was planning to attend Penn State University.
- Sophia Cucuzza from Staten Island lost her mother, Jaime, who worked at Thomson Reuters Corp., to lung cancer in 2014. She was planning to attend Hofstra University.
- Gabriella Abate of Manalapan, New Jersey,lost her grandfather, Joseph Abate, an NYPD officer, to lung cancer in 2021. She was planning to attend Marist University’s Florence campus.
- Domenick Masiello of Blauvelt lost his grandfather, Domenick, an electrician, to leukemia in 2021. He attends Lafayette College.
- Gianna Romano from Seaford, New York, lost her grandmother, Maria Errico, who worked at Aon, to gastric cancer in 2023. She was planning to attend Penn State University.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New scholarship helps 9/11 illness victims' descendants with college
