Teens Get Early Start on 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance
Mary Ann TaylorFeatured Photo: Sophia V., a member of a youth group from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participates in a 9/11 National Day of Service Project. Photos for this article are by Janette Wilcken, Mary Ann Taylor
Service can be done anywhere, at any time, publicly or privately. Last week in Argentina, 12-year-old Tiziano Carrizo was at a soccer game when his favorite goalie, Ezequiel Unsain, failed to stop a shot in an important game. The boy jumped a fence, ran to the dejected athlete, hugged him, and comforted him with a few words: “I told him not to cry, that in football you win and lose.”
In a gym, straining to bench press a bit more than usual, a lifter cannot move the weights. Someone else steps behind, quietly, and assists with the slightest support from a few fingers under the bar. Not an international incident, but service just the same.
The purpose of service is usually to assist in a time of struggle. While we can’t turn defeat into victory, we can share hearts and hands in healing.
September 11 Day of Service and Remembrance began quietly, with one person, then two. David Paine had grown up in New York City. After the tragic loss of life in 2001, he thought of a different legacy. He said later, “We wanted instead to honor the victims and those who rose in service by keeping alive the spirit of unity and service that arose in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.” His first partner, Jay Winuk, lost his younger brother Glen, a volunteer firefighter who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center Southern Tower.
Two became millions of volunteers around the country. President George W. Bush had issued a Proclamation in December 2001 designating 9/11 as Patriot Day. In 2009, President Barack Obama amended the declaration, and 9/11 became a National Day of Service and Remembrance, only the second after Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service was established in 1994.
To honor this history, youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Duncanville, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Midlothian, and Dallas gathered to help a local resident clear her yard of bamboo and other debris. Ruth Coles retired ten years ago after her career as a seamstress at Nordstrom. Even with long hours, she enjoyed keeping her large corner lot in good order. Now mobility issues have limited her ability to keep up the work.
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Julie Anderson helped organize the event and said, “Service is what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s what the Savior asked us to do, and I hope we will be finding even more.” The youth and adults worked together to cut up and pile bamboo, rake leaves, cut dead limbs, and trim crape myrtle. Poison ivy warnings were given; the only snake found—a 5-inch garden variety—was tended carefully and returned to the brush.
More repairs will be done. Two men repaired a gate with weakened hinges, but several fence sections needed bolstering. Dozens of bags of clippings must be removed as well as an abundance of bamboo. Still, Ms. Cole is thrilled.
Sitting on her porch, Ms. Cole listened to the young women in the group sing “As Sisters in Zion” and “We Are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father.” She applauded them and smiled, waved and said many thank you’s before being treated to cookies and an ice cream sandwich.
It was a great beginning for a month of service activities planned in local communities across the metroplex. As with all such projects, Miss Cole’s yard rescuers will find that they, too, are lifted by their dedicated good work.
Find a 9/11 Day of Service project near you HERE.
Mary Ann Taylor is communications director for the Dallas Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Duncanville.
