9/11 day of service calls for unity against backdrop of polarized nation

Wave after wave of smiling volunteers descended on the Intrepid Museum on Manhattan’s West Side Wednesday, ready to pack meals to feed the hungry on 9/11 Day, an annual event billed as the largest day of service across the nation. 

Except this year’s relief effort, coinciding with the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, also rolled out against the backdrop of a polarized nation going into the November presidential election. As a call for unity went out in divided times, there was no politics mentioned and no division on display – only some 5,000 volunteers packing an estimated 1 million meals and remembering how a nation first came together after that tragic day.

“We were inspired by the way America just put aside its differences,” said David Paine, co-founder of the nonprofit 9/11 Day, which organized the relief effort. “We weren't the red states or blue states. We were just human beings helping each other.”

The event was tied to similar relief efforts across the country, which saw a total of more than 30 million  participants from local organizations, faith-based groups and employers helping out. Volunteers donated their time and service in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Among the volunteers was Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who rather than give remarks, chose instead to dive right in and help.

“It's transformative to see, to understand the power of service and how you can turn pain into purpose,” Delgado told City & State. “I just got here, but I can already feel the energy. It's remarkable.”

Groups of volunteers came representing large corporate employers, including Delta Airlines, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase. All were split into teams at stations where food was packaged for distribution. While there was no mention specifically of the presidential election, the nonprofit 9/11 Day did request that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump suspend their campaign rhetoric and activities in observance of the Sept. 11 anniversary. Both candidates shook hands at the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero during a solemn tribute to the victims, just hours after having a contentious presidential debate the night before. 

Similarly, moments of silence were held at the 9/11 Day event. Lt. Duke Moloney of the Greenwich, Connecticut, Fire Department, stood with Jay Winuk, a 9/11 family member and co-founder of 9/11 Day, on stage before the volunteers as a bell tolled in memory of those who were lost. 

Then, like an army, the volunteers got to work packing the food distribution boxes. “With all this stuff happening in the world, we’re all just one,” said Barnie Keller, a market director for JPMorgan Chase from Staten Island, who turned to a fellow volunteer for a warm hug before they started their work boxing food donations. 

“That hug felt so good,” she told City & State, “because I’m here doing something that warms my heart.”