By Connor Adams Sheets
Jennifer Y. Wong died Sept. 11, 2001, in her office at Marsh & McLennan on the 96th floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center when a plane piloted by terrorists senselessly ended her life after only 26 years, devastating her family.
Wong, who grew up near the border between Bayside and Whitestone, was commemorated Saturday afternoon by friends, family members and local leaders, who made it possible for a street corner near her home to be renamed in honor of her life and dedication to her community.
The intersection of 25th Avenue and Utopia Parkway, about a block from her family home, will forever be called “Jennifer Y. Wong Way.”
Wong graduated from Townsend Harris High School and Binghamton University. During the last three years of her career at Townsend Harris, Wong returned to PS 20, from which she graduated, and donated her time to volunteer with children, helping to build a program that still connects youths at the two schools. She also spent many hours volunteering at her church in Manhattan.
The street designation gave Wong’s father, Ben, a sense of pride amid the sadness of loss.
“She was right in the impact zone, so we never heard from her,” Ben Wong told Community Board 7 during a January hearing in which the board approved the renaming. “My family goes back to Townsend Harris to give memorial scholarships to students every year to honor her name.”
The board has a rule against naming a street for someone simply because they died that fated day, but it is open to giving its blessing to honoring people who helped the area out of the goodness of their hearts, so its members voted unanimously for the change.
City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) was instrumental in arranging the renaming, and he said the event was successful in bringing people together in remembrance of Wong’s short life. He said about 50 people, including leaders of both the local Chinese and Korean communities, came out to watch Wong’s sign be unveiled Saturday.
“The street renaming sort of brings this full cycle as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” he said. “She is a typical young resident of our neighborhood. She really typifies what it’s like being a first-generation American here in this community living the American Dream.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
