09/11/2026
🇺🇸 On the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Mitra Creative co-founder and president Karl Ufert MitraCreative shares a deeply personal story of survival, courage, and gratitude involving his late father, .
Frank worked for the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in its New York regional office, then headquartered in 6 World Trade Center, adjacent to the Twin Towers. Although confined to a wheelchair following a stroke, he continued working for the agency.
On that beautiful September morning, Frank heard the impact as the first plane struck the North Tower and debris began crashing onto the roof of Building 6. He asked his colleagues to open the window shades. What they saw confirmed what many instinctively understood. Several, including Frank, had responded to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
They acted immediately. Frank’s colleagues grabbed his wheelchair, rushed him to the elevators and into the garage, then pushed him out onto West Street. As they escaped, they could see the flames above and people falling from the towers, images that remained with Frank for the rest of his life.
Across the city, Karl left his office at an important New York in the IT and raced to his parents’ apartment, repeatedly trying to reach his father as phone lines became overwhelmed. In an extraordinary twist, Frank and his colleagues had evacuated so quickly that some were able to call their spouses in New Jersey before communications failed. Those families called one another, and word reached Karl’s mother that Frank had escaped and was coming home.
Today, we honor the OSHA colleagues whose courage and instinct saved Frank’s life and their own.
We remember every person taken that day, and we pay tribute to all who gave of themselves in the hours, days, months, and years that followed. We honor the first responders, healthcare workers, volunteers, and countless others who cared for the injured, supported grieving families, and helped New York rebuild and move forward.
Twenty-five years later, we remember September 11 not through the lens of politics, but as a profound human tragedy whose lessons, sacrifices, and lives must never be forgotten. 🙏
MitraCreative.com