Victories and Visits: Our Face of America Journey Continues
By Tony Mussari
Copyright 2011
Mussari-Loftus Associates
The Face of America Project
www.faceofamericawps.com
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You cannot touch love, but you can feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Annie Sullivan
Battling Cancer: Great News
Kitch finished her radiation treatments on August 17. This picture records the ecstasy and joy of the moment. Day by day she is getting stronger. She takes a yoga class every week, and she works out with light weights three days a week.
Throughout her ordeal, Kitch has been courageous, determined and resolute. These are the words that gave her strength to battle cancer with optimism and hope, “I refuse to let cancer make me a victim.”
In her own quiet way, she is helping other cancer patients deal with the disease and the treatments. In every respect, 2011 has been her finest hour.
To Kitch’s doctors and nurses, the members of our family, our friends and the people we met during our journey along the dark gravel road called cancer, we say Thank You.
For the rest of our life, we will use what we learned battling this disease to help others who are suffering. That is the least we can do for the precious gift of life God gave us.
Good News
 Every now and then someone asks us what the status is on the book we have written about our Face of America journey. Recently, we received some very encouraging news from our literary agent.
The book proposal is in the hands of an editor at a major publishing house in New York. We don’t know what the outcome will be, but we have been told this is a major accomplishment especially in these days of celebrity books!
Our agent put it this way, “Not many book proposals get that far these days.”
We have our fingers crossed, and we will keep you posted on any developments.
Shanksville: Sentimental News
To use the words of a famous nanny, our final visit and screening in Shanksville was “practically perfect in every way.” The weather was good. The people who attended were wonderful. The documentary was well received, and the memories we have are rich in all the ways that matter.
Recently we posted several articles about our final screening on our Face of America website. You can read them at these secure addresses:
http://faceofamericawps.com/news/shanksville-a-place-of-transformation/
http://faceofamericawps.com/articles/
http://faceofamericawps.com/news/an-unforgettable-weekend-in-shanksville/
http://faceofamericawps.com/news/the-secret-to-our-remarkable-weekend-in-shanksville/
 During the past ten years, producing the Shanksville documentary was central to the rhythm of our life. We recorded the necessary B-roll and interviews during our visit. We recorded additional interviews during the year, and we set aside four months for editing and post-production.
To be very honest, it was the most important work we have ever done, and we loved every minute of every day we worked on the film and planned the events for the visit.
Access to the Peoples’ Memorial to the Heroes of Flight 93 was never an issue. The people we met at the Peoples’ Memorial were welcoming and very helpful. It was not uncommon for us to visit Shanksville several times during the year.
In ten years, we have produced 22 documentaries about Shanksville, Point Thank You on the West Side Highway in New York and Ground Zero. None of these documentaries was motivated by profit and no attempt was ever made to commercialize this work.
We did the work to help keep the memory of that day alive. We did it to help young people better understand what happened that day and why it is important to remember all those who lost their lives on September 11, and after in Iraq and Afghanistan. We did it from the goodness of our hearts and with love for our country.
For our part, we are pleased to have had the opportunity to tell the Shanksville story in a Windsor Park way. Our final visit and screening was remarkable in every sense of the word. We left Shanksville with a very good feeling about the work we did, the people we met, the friendships we made, the things we learned, and the hundreds of people we took to the Peoples’ Memorial in Shanksville.
The words of Annie Sullivan best describe our ten year What Is America? project in Shanksville.
“Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.”
Anniversary News
One year ago we were driving south to finish our Face of America Journey. We visited Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia. Kitch really enjoyed this part of our journey. She loved Charleston and Savannah. We met some wonderful people, and we recorded several; beautiful scenes. Little did we know then what was ahead of us? Often during her battle with cancer, we talked about the magic moments from this part of our trip.
Picture of the Month
 During our final vist to Shanksville, kitch and I decided to spend a few minutes walking along Main Street. this sentimental journey took us to one of the town's landmarks, Idas Store.
While we were there we purchased two ice cream cones. Like two tenagers, we sat in front of the store visiting with people as they came to pick up items.
I took this picture of the Amish while Kitch and I were sitting on the bench in front of Ida’s Store.
Kitch waved to the couple, and the Amish woman smiled and waved back. It was a priceless moment on a day of many memorable moments.
On the Road Again
In the days ahead, we will be sharing our Shanksville documentary with audiences in Maryland and New Jersey. 
We have been invited to speak about the documentary and our Face of America project at a lecture series in the spring.
One of the women who visited Shanksville with us this year is determined to find a way to get the documentary into high schools across the country. If that happens we will very busy. If it doesn’t happen, we have the sweet memory that someone cared about our work and was willing to help us share it with others.
In our opinion, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Until the next time we hope that all of your stories will have happy endings.
Tony & Kitch Mussari
Producers
The Face of America Project
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