Volunteers mark 9/11 with Day of Service
NEW YORK - Selfless acts 23 years ago are inspiring a day of service on 9/11.
Volunteers at the Intrepid Museum spent Wednesday feeding hungry New Yorkers.
Brigitte Wootlock lost friends on 9/11. To honor them, and the others who were lost, she volunteers every year. This year, she was measuring out the makings of a meal, along with her coworkers.
"Why is you giving back the best way to remember and honor your friends?" CBS News New York's Vanessa Murdock asked.
"Because then it's not just only in my heart. It's an action that I'm doing," Whitlock said.
"Very joyful to see everyone coming together to make a difference," another volunteer said.
"There are millions of people today marking the day by doing good deeds," 9/11 Day co-founder Jay Winuk said.
9/11 Day, a nonprofit, focuses on coming together to do good.
"To reflect the way people responded after the attacks," Winuk said.
Winul also wanted his brother's life of service to live on. Glenn Winuk was a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Jericho who worked near the Twin Towers.
"On the morning of 9/11, he helped evacuate his law offices and then raced on foot into the South Tower," Winuk said.
"A beautiful thing"
So many of the selfless acts 23 years ago continue to inspire action. Six thousand volunteers are packing two million meals for hungry New Yorkers over the next two days. The meals will be split between City Harvest and Food Bank for New York City.
"At least one in three families is facing food insecurity, and to see this many people come out is really, really a beautiful thing," Janis Robinson of the Food Bank for New York City said.
While volunteers were packing meals on the Intrepid, across the Hudson River, scores more rolled up their sleeves for the tenth annual Jersey City Fire & Police 9/11 Memorial Blood Drive. Michael Stivala, president and CEO of Suburban Propane, said he expects the Red Cross will collect as many as 200 units of blood.
"I expect this place to be hopping all day," Stivala said. "Donating blood is such a selfless act... every unit of blood will save three lives."
Lives saved in honor of those of those who sacrificed their own on 9/11.