A delegation from the MonacoUSA association is set to join nearly 30,000 participants in New York City for the ‘Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk’ to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 11th September attacks. The delegation is travelling to honour first responders and reaffirm the enduring diplomatic and personal ties between Monaco and the United States.
The event, to be held on Sunday 27th September, retraces the final journey of firefighter Stephen Siller, one of the 343 New York City firefighters who lost their lives on 11th September 2001, after carrying nearly 60 pounds of equipment through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers.
A personal connection to New York
The Monaco delegation includes Board member and native New Yorker Merrily Lustig Tornatore – participating for the sixth time – alongside her husband Rémy Tornatore, Board member Kimberlee Smith, local residents Marie-Pierre Porri, Yannick Barrel, and Marie Serra, and International University of Monaco alumni Benjamin Franco and Andrew Agnello.
“I was born and raised in New York, and even after all these years in Monaco, I will always be a New Yorker,” said Lustig Tornatore.
Watching the events unfold from Europe in 2001, she was unable to reach her mother in Manhattan, returning weeks later to a city in mourning. “The families and friends of those who lost their lives are still with us. That is why we must continue to tell their stories – to honour their memory and pass it on to future generations,” she added.
Standing between paradise and hell
The anniversary carries deep institutional resonance for Monaco, whose presence in New York spans more than six decades and is anchored by the legacy of American-born Princess Grace.
Maguy Maccario Doyle, Ambassador of Monaco to the United States and Canada, was serving as Monaco’s Consul General in New York on the morning of 11th September. Stationed at offices on the corner of 46th Street and Fifth Avenue, her team watched flames and smoke ripple from the towers before evacuating amid conflicting reports of further airborne threats.
Walking with her youngest daughter through Central Park after collecting her from school, Ambassador Maccario Doyle recalled the stark contrast of the environment. “In the park, everything seemed calm, beautiful, almost idyllic,” she said. “Looking south toward Wall Street, we could see the immense cloud of smoke rising above Lower Manhattan. Around us, the serenity of Central Park; in the distance, the image of a city struck at its very heart. We felt as though we were standing between paradise and hell.”
The story behind Prince Albert’s $700,000 donation
Faced with months of sustained trauma – encompassing lingering smoke, security alerts, the anthrax scares, the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, and endless funeral processions for emergency personnel at St. Patrick’s Cathedral – Ambassador Maccario Doyle sought a concrete outlet for solidarity.
When established relief channels proved overwhelmed, she proposed a dedicated fundraising campaign to Prince Rainier III’s Chief of Cabinet. With the backing of the Sovereign and the Princely Government, Monaco residents, businesses, and the Princess Grace Foundation-USA mobilised support. On 23rd October 2001, Prince Albert – then Hereditary Prince – travelled to New York to present Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with a $700,000 donation to the ‘Twin Towers Relief Fund’.
“Twenty-five years later, we remember those who lost their lives and honour those who ran toward danger to save others,” Ambassador Maccario Doyle concluded.
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Prince Albert II in New York after the 9/11 attacks. Photo credit: Embassy of the Principality of Monaco