NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City brokerage firm thatlost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 terror
attacks announced that it will"adopt" 19 schools in communities hit hard by Superstorm Sandy and
willgive each family in those schools $1,000 to spend as they see fit.CantorFitzgerald, its relief fund and
its affiliate BGC Partners will donate atotal of $10 million to the families in Brooklyn, Queens,
StatenIsland, Long Island and New Jersey.Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick said each family will receive
a debit card with $1,000 on it.Lutnicksaid he learned after Cantor’s devastating loss of so many
employeeswith young children that help should come with no strings attached."Thebest way to take care
of a family is to put money in the hands of theparents and let them decide what to do," he said.
"Maybe they need acouch and maybe they need to go to Toys R Us and buy their kids apresent."Cantor
Fitzgerald’s headquarters on the 101st through105th floors of One World Trade Center were destroyed when
terroristsstruck the tower, and the company lost two-thirds of its New York workforce. Lutnick was not in
the office but his brother Gary was killed.The company’s death toll was by far the largest of any single
employer.TheCantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund run by Lutnick’s sister Edie wasestablished to aid the families of
Cantor employees lost on Sept. 11 butits scope has since expanded to include scores of charities around
theworld.Each year on Sept. 11 the company donates the day’srevenues to charity and employees donate their
day’s pay. The effortraised $12 million last September."We wanted to have a way thatwe could
memorialize those that we lost in a way that was positive, andto do good things," Edie Lutnick said.She
said that when Sandyhit the region last October the relief fund immediately wanted to help.The schools
selected for aid are in areas where Cantor employees live orhave other connections."We’re really
excited that we have theopportunity to help the families from these 19 schools to let them knowthat
communities matter and that we care," Edie Lutnick said.TheLutnicks were to join U.S. Sen. Charles
Schumer (D., N.Y.) and otherofficials at Public School 256 in Far Rockaway on Thursday to hand outthe first
cash cards.Cantor Fitzgerald has been affected by Sandyitself. The firm moved its headquarters to midtown
after the 2001attacks but it had more than 500 employees at an office on Water Streetin lower Manhattan when
the storm hit. They relocated to Cantor’s otheroffices, Howard Lutnick said. The Water Street site has still
notreopened.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.