/PRNewswire/ -- With President Obama planning to formally declare September 11th for the first time as a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance at the urging of the 9/11 community and Congress, thousands of organizations around the nation -- nonprofits, employers and faith based groups and others -- are already mobilizing hundreds of thousands of Americans to engage in service and perform good deeds in observance of the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Led by the 9/11 non-profit MyGoodDeed, 9/11 families and others worked for more than seven years to establish September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance -- finally securing passage of legislation in April 2009, within the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which authorized the creation of the 9/11 observance. Since that time, MyGoodDeed has organized an unprecedented coalition of organizations that have come together to engage not only Americans, but people from around the world.
Since its inception in 2002, supporters of MyGoodDeed have pledged to perform more than a million acts of service, spanning all 50 states and some 170 countries and territories. This year, tens of thousands have visited the organization's website, 911dayofservice.org, since its early August launch to pledge their good deeds. Thousands have also posted their service plans for 9/11 at the federal government's volunteer service website, serve.gov.
In Huron, Ohio, Stephen Petrovich will place calls to emergency workers and first responders to thank them for their service. In Albany, New York, Michelle Garcia and the Sisters of Omega Phi Beta Sorority will dedicate themselves to serving the community during the week of 9/11, and to raising awareness among the University at Albany community to get involved. John Henry and Ellie Labriola of Southbury, Connecticut set up a lemonade stand the week before school began and raised more than $100 to donate to a school uniform drive for other schoolchildren in need. In Atlanta, Georgia, Lillie Love and her friends will put together and deliver goody baskets to fire and police stations as a way of paying tribute to the first responders who worked tirelessly on 9/11 and the days and weeks following. In Chicago, Illinois, Tiffany Bohm and her classmates will kick off a semester-long service project to collect 2,974 pairs of shoes, representing each person lost in the 9/11 attacks, to donate to a homeless shelter.
MyGoodDeed was originally co-founded in 2003 by two friends, David Paine and Jay S. Winuk, following the death of Winuk's brother, 9/11 rescuer Glenn J. Winuk, an attorney, volunteer firefighter and EMT who died in the line of duty during the collapse of the World Trade Center South Tower. Since that time, they have worked to build awareness and support for the idea.
"After seven years of hard work and advocacy by the 9/11 community and many others, we have finally achieved our goal of establishing September 11th as a National Day of Service and Remembrance through broad, bi-partisan support from across the country," Paine said. "This year, we expect to inspire hundreds of thousands more people to commemorate the day by remembering and rekindling the spirit of unity that swept the nation in the wake of the attacks."
Added Winuk: "I will always remember 9/11 as the day that I lost my brother Glenn. But I will also remember his sacrifice in service to others. As a volunteer firefighter, he ran into the South Tower to help those in need, instead of running for safety himself. He inspired me to start this campaign, just like so many stories of 9/11 have inspired others to give back to their communities."
In addition to the personal pledges of service and good deeds, corporations and community organizations are giving back, and in many cases, actively seeking volunteers who are looking to give back as well.
In Scottsdale Arizona, the Mayor plans to proclaim 9/11 as a citywide day of service. Arizona's 9/11 Remembrance and National Day of Service Event will host four days of activities at the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall from September 10 - 13, including displays of The 9/11 Memorial Wall designed by Lisa Vella of Scottsdale, Arizona, and the The National Unity Flag designed by Randy Cooney of Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, local and national community service agencies will be on hand to provide the public with information about how to get involved to help those in need.
In Harlem, New York, employees of GlaxoSmithKline will educate more than 1,000 elementary school children and their teachers at the Harlem Children's Zone about prevention of the H1N1 virus. With the help of partner New York Cares, MyGoodDeed will also sponsor two service events of its own in Harlem - where more than 100 volunteers will come together to work with school children at A. Phillip Randolph Elementary School, and another 35 volunteers will help to revitalize Jenny's Garden at Riverside Park.
9/11 Families Also to Engage in Service
For the first time, the annual "reading of the names" ceremony held each year at Ground Zero in New York City will include volunteers as well as 9/11 family members, in commemoration of 9/11 becoming a National Day of Service and Remembrance. Winuk, whose brother was post-humously awarded the 9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor by the U.S. Department of Justice over the weekend, is one of only three family members scheduled to speak during the ceremony.
In Boston, The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund and Homes for Our Troops, founded with the support of the families of 9/11 victims, will meet at The Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston on September 11th for a Care Package Packing Party, and to honor former Senator Edward Kennedy. Organized in part by Christie Coombs, who lost her husband Jeff in the 9/11 attacks, volunteers are needed to write letters to service men and women overseas, pack care packages and collect donations of clothing and other items.
In Washington DC, there are more than 50 different service events planned. Among them, the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA), the leading private provider of educational, recreational, social and religious support services to junior enlisted military personnel and their families, will assemble 200 volunteers at RFK Stadium on September 11th to support Operation Kid Comfort by designing photo-transfer quilts for children of deployed service men and women to help children cope during a parent's deployment.
"Organized service opportunities are available in all 50 states and across the world for those interested in giving back on 9/11, which is absolutely wonderful," said Winuk. "But we believe that even a small gesture - a single good deed - is all it takes to make a difference. Simply put, anyone who wants to give back on 9/11 or any day of the year can do so. No deed is too small."
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Showing posts with label day of service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day of service. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Hundreds of Thousands of Volunteers to Provide Day of Service in Eleven Southern States
/PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from community and faith-based organizations will strengthen communities and bring relief to those struggling because of the economic downturn in an unprecedented single day of service across 11 southern states on 25 April 2009.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized the project under the direction of Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, who presides over church affairs in the southern United States. He challenged over 665 congregations from Florida to Indiana to join forces with other faiths and civic organizations to render significant community service in what is being called "The Helping Hands and Linking Arms Project."
Elder Gonzalez said: "It's powerful when like-minded people join together to meet a wide spectrum of needs in diverse communities. We can bring help and hope to others no matter what their circumstances."
"The impact of these feet on the ground during the day of service will do in one day what takes us four months as an organization to accomplish," said Jack Morgan, CEO for the Northeast Chapter of the American Red Cross in Jacksonville, Florida. "We are hoping that this partnership is not just about this one day but about our future working together to prepare the community for disasters and to help with response when disaster strikes."
The project includes gleaning crops, restocking community food banks, holding career fairs and blood drives, cleaning and repairing community facilities, building a Habitat for Humanity home, planting container gardens for low-income families, sponsoring a 5k run for charity and even preparing Mother's Day gifts for homeless children. In Tennessee volunteers will prepare and plant eight vacant lots in the inner city with vegetable gardens that will be cared for by neighborhood organizations, and in North Carolina foster children will be "adopted" for the day of service to show them the benefits of giving to others.
"When I heard about the day of service, I thought it was a perfect way to serve," said Stacy Somers, president of the Wellington Citizens Volunteer Organization in Florida. "It will be a great activity for adults and children, singles and families. This kind of project is what volunteerism should be all about."
The project will not only help community service organizations but also everyday people struggling to serve and make ends meet. For example, Gwendolyn Brown-Johnson is a grandmother in Charlotte, North Carolina, who noticed that several children in her neighborhood were not getting an evening meal and invited them in for a warm dinner. That was 10 years ago. Today, she has 70 children joining her every night for dinner. She calls her initiative the Parkview Kids Cafe. Brown-Johnson believes it is her calling to take care of these children as the loving grandmother they might not otherwise have in their lives.
"The only way I can feed 70 children every night is through generous donations from so many organizations," Brown-Johnson said. "Second Harvest Food Bank provides the food the children need, but we also rely on churches, such as yours, to provide the extras that bless the lives of these children with food for the weekends, day camps and field trips."
Volunteers will stock Brown-Johnson's "emergency pantry" with jars of jam and jelly, meals children can microwave, and powdered milk. From this emergency pantry, she fills a backpack for every child and sends it home with him or her on Friday night, ensuring that each child will have food for the weekend. The volunteers will also paint Brown-Johnson's dining room and help with cleaning.
In several states, the project will focus on helping communities that were hard hit by past hurricanes to become better prepared. Two thousand volunteers will distribute disaster prevention materials to 40,000 homes in Florida, and hundreds of young people will install smoke alarms and reflective address signs for the elderly in Louisiana as part of a newly enhanced 911 service.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized the project under the direction of Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, who presides over church affairs in the southern United States. He challenged over 665 congregations from Florida to Indiana to join forces with other faiths and civic organizations to render significant community service in what is being called "The Helping Hands and Linking Arms Project."
Elder Gonzalez said: "It's powerful when like-minded people join together to meet a wide spectrum of needs in diverse communities. We can bring help and hope to others no matter what their circumstances."
"The impact of these feet on the ground during the day of service will do in one day what takes us four months as an organization to accomplish," said Jack Morgan, CEO for the Northeast Chapter of the American Red Cross in Jacksonville, Florida. "We are hoping that this partnership is not just about this one day but about our future working together to prepare the community for disasters and to help with response when disaster strikes."
The project includes gleaning crops, restocking community food banks, holding career fairs and blood drives, cleaning and repairing community facilities, building a Habitat for Humanity home, planting container gardens for low-income families, sponsoring a 5k run for charity and even preparing Mother's Day gifts for homeless children. In Tennessee volunteers will prepare and plant eight vacant lots in the inner city with vegetable gardens that will be cared for by neighborhood organizations, and in North Carolina foster children will be "adopted" for the day of service to show them the benefits of giving to others.
"When I heard about the day of service, I thought it was a perfect way to serve," said Stacy Somers, president of the Wellington Citizens Volunteer Organization in Florida. "It will be a great activity for adults and children, singles and families. This kind of project is what volunteerism should be all about."
The project will not only help community service organizations but also everyday people struggling to serve and make ends meet. For example, Gwendolyn Brown-Johnson is a grandmother in Charlotte, North Carolina, who noticed that several children in her neighborhood were not getting an evening meal and invited them in for a warm dinner. That was 10 years ago. Today, she has 70 children joining her every night for dinner. She calls her initiative the Parkview Kids Cafe. Brown-Johnson believes it is her calling to take care of these children as the loving grandmother they might not otherwise have in their lives.
"The only way I can feed 70 children every night is through generous donations from so many organizations," Brown-Johnson said. "Second Harvest Food Bank provides the food the children need, but we also rely on churches, such as yours, to provide the extras that bless the lives of these children with food for the weekends, day camps and field trips."
Volunteers will stock Brown-Johnson's "emergency pantry" with jars of jam and jelly, meals children can microwave, and powdered milk. From this emergency pantry, she fills a backpack for every child and sends it home with him or her on Friday night, ensuring that each child will have food for the weekend. The volunteers will also paint Brown-Johnson's dining room and help with cleaning.
In several states, the project will focus on helping communities that were hard hit by past hurricanes to become better prepared. Two thousand volunteers will distribute disaster prevention materials to 40,000 homes in Florida, and hundreds of young people will install smoke alarms and reflective address signs for the elderly in Louisiana as part of a newly enhanced 911 service.
-----
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