By Philip R. Devlin
(September 16, 2026) — Higganum 8th grader Chelsea Griswold was just 13 years old in my wife’s eighth grade English class in the fall of 2001. In the wake of the awful tragedy on September 11th, her class was asked to write about its impact. Chelsea chose to write a poem.
Her maternal grandfather, Robert Tubbs of Clinton, who was an expert crane operator for Manafort Construction of New Britain (photo above), was working at Ground Zero taking down the wreckage. He received Chelsea’s poem on site and began posting copies of it there. Little did anyone realize the big impact that poem would have on the workers clearing the wreckage of the Twin Towers.
Chelsea recalled that she and her mother “decided to go to Lower Manhattan to visit him. The day before we left to go home, I handed him the poem that I had written for Mrs. Devlin’s class. He showed it to one person who showed it to another.” Eventually, the poem touched so many people at the site that a welder there made three sculptures of the twin towers using metal from the wreckage (photo above). One sculpture was sent to New York Governor George Pataki; another went to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the third one went to Chelsea Griswold of Higganum and the HK Middle School! She was even called out from class one day to take an appreciative call from some New York City firefighters. A stream of thank-you letters from New York followed for weeks.
Chelsea and her younger sister, Lindsay, are both graduates of HKHS. Both were excellent students and athletes. Along with our daughter, Kelley, Chelsea played field hockey for Coach Patsy Kamercia for four years. In addition, she was an excellent softball player for Coach Jeff Talbott’s team that won the state championship in 2003.
After graduating in 2006, Chelsea attended Hofstra University where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in videography. She soon got a job with ABC News in New York City (photo above) where she worked for years with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America” and many other news stories for “Frontline” and “2020.” Now, according to her mom, Brenda, Chelsea is a happy stay-at-home mom raising her three children on Long Island—and coaching youth softball! (Incidentally, her sister, Lindsay, also works still for ABC News.) Her beloved grandfather, Robert Tubbs, is now retired and living in Clinton with his wife.
As Mrs. Devlin used to say to her students, “You never know what influence your words may have on others.” That proved to be very true for the meaningful words of a young eighth grader from Higganum in the fall of 2001. Here is Chelsea’s poem:
Ground Zero
From Ground Zero I can see,
A city of people in misery.
A misery that has caused hearts to ache all over,
Everyone is lending a hand or a shoulder.
Lives were lost in a blink of an eye,
Not having a clue they were about to die.
People coming from far and wide,
With feelings and emotions they cannot hide.
Rescue workers, working night and day,
Hoping for a miracle to come their way.
Lives destroyed by terrorists and two planes by noon,
Our hearts bleed for the people who have left us too soon.
This tragedy has touched our hearts, which have sighed,
A million tears our nation has cried.
Now, stronger than ever our country will be,
The home of the brave and the land of the free.
I am proud to be an American and you should be too,
Living in the country of red, white and blue.
——-By Chelsea Griswold, 8th Grade (2001), Age:13 Haddam-Killingworth Middle School
Photo of Twin Towers sculpture by Philip Devlin
Additional photos provided by the Griswold Family
