Ex-Giants Star Travels Long Road

Sages have said we must walk a mile in another person’s shoes before we can pass judgment. Unless the shoes belong to George Martin. Then you have to walk 1,600 miles.

Martin, a captain on the Giants 1986 Super Bowl championship team, is walking across the United States to call attention to the plight of rescue and recovery workers who risked their lives in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Martin said that his walk, A Journey for 9/11, was created as “a labor of love and appreciation.”

Two of Martin’s neighbors died in the attacks.

“I’ve been called a hero,” he said Wednesday during a telephone interview from Oklahoma City. “But on that day, I saw what true heroes were really all about.”

Many of the first responders to the attack, including police officers, firefighters, and rescue and recovery workers were exposed to toxins that might have led to illness and disease that were undiagnosed at the time.

The money Martin raised will go to three participating hospital systems — the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System — to provide medical care for the first responders and rescue and recovery workers. For every dollar Martin raises, the hospitals have pledged to provide an additional dollar of medical care.

The Giants’ surprising Super Bowl run has injected the walk with much-needed energy and news media coverage. Martin said that he had been bombarded with interview requests. “Every five minutes we’re being interviewed now, which is great because it brings exposure and brings our cause to the light,” he said.

Martin began his journey in September with a rousing halftime send-off during the Giants’ home opener. Since then, he has walked more than 1,600 miles.

Beyond the fund-raising impetus, what Martin has seen in the subsequent four and a half months has opened his eyes, and his heart, and renewed his faith in the human spirit. He has seen the Blue Ridge Mountains, the majesty of Virginia, the expansiveness of Tennessee, the diverse foliage of the fall, the tapestry of heartland agriculture.