Newsday-Group urges Americans to mark Sept. 11 with volunteer work

Thursday August 17, 2006

From Newsday:

Group urges Americans to mark Sept. 11 with volunteer work

 


August 16, 2006, 6:24 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- Americans should consider marking the anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks by performing good deeds, like volunteering for charities or checking in on elderly neighbors, says a group promoting Sept. 11 as a day of national service.

The nonprofit group, One Day's Pay, on Wednesday kicked off its annual campaign to associate volunteerism with the anniversary of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The organization said it had launched a Web site, myGoodDeed.org, where people may pledge to perform charitable acts and get lists of worthy causes.

Advertisements promoting the program will run on television and on Web sites maintained by AOL and MySpace.com, the group said.

One Day's Pay announced its latest efforts in the 4-year-old campaign on the day that New York officials released audio recordings of 911 dispatchers fielding desperate phone calls from the World Trade Center.

The recordings served as a stark reminder of the horrors of Sept. 11, but their airing also raised a question, suggested One Day's Pay president David Paine.

"Which way are we going to remember 9/11?" he asked.

Group co-founder Jay Winuk, whose brother died at the World Trade Center, said it shouldn't always be about remembering despair.

Two New York politicians, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and U.S. Rep. Peter King, offered their support to the campaign at a news conference in Manhattan.

King said volunteering would be a "positive" way to honor the dead.

"They wouldn't want us to dwell in sorrow, he said.

Clinton said she was still thinking about what her good deed would be on Sept. 11 but was considering something that would benefit children.