Info on Tickets For Prayer Vigil

By Joshua Robin and Indrani Sen | STAFF WRITERS

September 22, 2001

Tickets for Sunday's prayer service for victims of the World Trade Center disaster are available to the public until noon Saturday at local police precincts and at the Family Assistance Center in Manhattan.

"A Prayer for America" will be an interfaith service scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Yankee Stadium and will feature several celebrities including Bette Midler, Oprah Winfrey and James Earl Jones, an administration source said. It will also feature Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders.Doors will open at 11 a.m.

"It will bring everybody together in one place," said Gloria Brooks, a police administrator grieving for Rescue One firefighter William Henry, who she said was "like a brother to me."

"I just think it will be a good place for people to get together and share their feelings," she said as she picked up her tickets in the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills.

The service will be broadcast via satellite to large screens at 6,500-seat Key Span Park in Coney Island and at the 7,500-capacity Richmond County Savings Bank Ballpark on Staten Island, said city officials. It will also be carried by local television stations, said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Friday.

Giuliani said up to 26,000 of the seats at the three stadiums will be reserved for family members of victims. Yankee Stadium seats 57,545.

Tickets are free and available at the following police precinct houses: the 13th and 24th precincts in Manhattan; the 48th, 67th and 90th precincts in Brooklyn; the 107th and 112th precincts in Queens; and the 122nd Precinct on Staten Island. Tickets are also available at the Family Assistance Center at Pier 94 in Manhattan.

Officer Debbie Santomartino of the 107th Precinct in Flushing said there had been a "steady stream" of ticket-seekers all day. A few people from the neighborhood who were not direct friends or family members were turned away on Friday, said Santomartino. The station gave out an estimated 250 tickets.