Lisa New York Story

The Jackie Concert That Wasn't
By Lisa Schwark

Exciting announcement! Jackie is to perform a charity concert in New York on April 7th, his birthday. Instead of taking a family vacation to New York in the summer, the Schwark family (Lisa, Mark, Nic and Stephanie) decides to go in April instead. Not only will we see the wonderful sights of New York City and be able to visit with Kids Corner Webmaster, Kath, we will be able to see Jackie too! Plans are started. Excitement is mounting. But wait. There's a change in plans…

Jackie was to have two US concerts, one in New York and one in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the one in New York was cancelled. At first we were all very disappointed. We were looking forward to meeting other Kids Corner kids and their parents. We were looking forward to possibly seeing people we had met at the Hong Kong fan club party again. And of course, we were looking forward to seeing Jackie and his friends perform at the concert. Although we were disappointed about not being able to do these things, we kept our plans to go to New York. And we ended up having a Jackie type of vacation! Even though Jackie wasn't there.

Jackie likes to meet all kinds of people and often talks about accepting people for what they are. New York City was filled with people of every shape, size and color. Our hotel was right in Times Square. Times Square is a very busy and bustling area for tourists and New Yorkers alike. As we walked along we could observe many, many people. We heard languages being spoken that we had never heard before. We saw people with dark skin, we saw people with light skin. We saw people with dark hair and people with light hair. We even saw someone with pink hair! Even though we were all different, we all had something in common- that New York City excitement. Part of that excitement was having so many people together in one small space excited about the same thing.

Another thing Jackie is known for is his empathy. Empathy is trying to understand how someone else is feeling. Jackie often talks about war and how sad and hurtful it is. While in New York we saw ground zero, the sight where the World Trade Center Twin Towers were. It was a very sad experience. We could feel the pain that so many people suffered. Thinking about how many people were lost in that attack was difficult as we stood looking at the empty hole that used to hold two tall buildings. We don't know anyone personally who was lost in the attack, but we sure could empathize with anyone who had lost somebody. Like Jackie, we hope that some day the entire world will be able to live in peace.

Ground Zero, New York City

This sculpture originally sat outside the Twin Towers. Amazingly, it survived the attacks

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Story and photos by Lisa Schwark

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