Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have an important conversation lined up for you for this episode of the show, ahead of the twenty third anniversary of the September eleventh attacks. We'll focus on something good that came out of that horrific event. I'm joined by David Payne, president and co
founder of nine to eleven Day. This Wednesday, September eleventh is the nine to eleven Day of Service, which you can learn more about at nine to eleven Day dot org. That's nine to one one day dot org. David, thank you so much for joining me once again ahead of another anniversary of a day I know you remember very well, and let's start there what you experienced on that faithful day twenty three years ago.
Yeah, I, like a lot of Americans, you know, I woke up that morning expecting it would just be another day, and of course it wasn't.
You know.
I got a phone call from friend of mine who said turn on the TV, like many Americans, and then for the next you know, days, hours and you know hours, days and weeks. I was excluded to the TV and watched the horror unfold, and for me it was personal because I'd grown up in New York City. I had many family and friends there. Although I wasn't in New
York at the time. My own brother was in the building directly across the way, and he witnessed the second planes slamming into the World Trade Center tower, and as he was evacuating the area, he saw people jumping from the buildings. It was obviously a horrible experience for everyone in the country and around the world, and a very good friend of mine, Jay Winnick, his fortunes, unfortunately, were different.
His brother Glenn, who was an attorney at Holland and Knight but a volunteer firefighter, was lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center South Tower, and very shortly thereafter, Jane and I got together and we looked at each other, I think, like a lot of people, and we said, you know, how do we make sure that something good comes from this horrible tragedy.
How do we take the day back so that the.
Terrorists wouldn't fare our own nine to eleven, and at the time, we were inspired by the way Americans, you know, weren't Red states or Blue states, you know, we were just human beings helping one one another, and that spirit of unity was so palpable, so remarkable, that we decided that the best way to pay tribute would be to try to at least create one day out of the year, you know, that sense of togetherness and encourage people from all around the nation to join together in unity and
spend the day helping others in need. And that was sort of the inspiration and what led to ultimately what is now nine eleven Day, the largest data service in the country.
There's so much to unpack from what you just discussed. Let me start for those who don't remember that day, weren't alive on September eleven, two thousand and one, don't quite understand the trauma that we experienced as a country. What more can you tell us about those conversations you had with your brother who was there and saw that horror firsthand and lived to tell the story.
You know, my brother, you know, until Humpy relatively recently, always says to me that he tries to tell himself that what he saw.
Was just debris. And I had other friends that.
Were potentially killed and you know, escaped from that area as well. I had a very good friend of mine who was was just like a lot of people, just watching in horror, you know, only a few hundred yards away from the tower when it suddenly began to collapse.
And she ran for her life.
And she said she would have been consumed by this, you know, this soon of debris, if not for a stranger grabbing her by the jacket and pulling her into a store flat front at the last minute.
And I think, for the what is it now, a hundred million Americans that have been born since the nine to eleven tragedy, almost a third of the country. You know, they don't understand what that felt like, not just the tragedy itself, the horror of.
It, but you know what our country was like in the weeks afterwards, when we were still wondering if there was going to be another terrorist attack or an anthrax attack, and there were constantly, you know, the evacuations and the fear that I think, you know, gripped our nation was something that I think all of us will never forget. But out of that was this extraordinary moment of goodness at the exact same time, and you know, all of
a sudden, we were all just neighbors. And I remember walking, you know, to my grocery store and people, you know, I.
Didn't even know.
We look at each other and we had an immediate connection based on what we had all experienced. And what it taught me, I think more than anything else. And I think this is somewhat ironic to say, but it taught me that that fundamentally we all really love and care about one another, despite the terrible things we do to each other.
Nine to eleven sort of demonstrated that.
There was this innate goodness in all of us and it just surfaced almost immediately, and it brought us all together. And you know, when I think about how you know, divided we seem to be in the country today, in this election year, it reminds me that that's a myth in some respects, it's just a perception of thought, when in reality, deep inside, we're deeply unified and always will be.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by David Payne, President and co founder of nine to eleven Day, which you can learn more about at nine to eleven day dot org again. That's nine one one day dot org coming up this Wednesday, it's the nine to eleven Day of Service, and we'll talk more about all that that entails in just a bit. You know. I remember that day almost like it was yesterday, and it changed my life. It changed everybody's life who experienced it in some way. I feel for me, I
had just started college. It was literally, I think, my first week at the university, and I never paid attention to the news and things like that before. I was always you know, focused on sports or you know, things like that. And from that day on news, politics was happening in the world. It became part of my life. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today if not for what I experienced on nine to eleven, and obviously in the days, weeks, months, and years after that. That's
how much it changed me. I wouldn't be doing I was doing radio at the time, but I wouldn't be doing the news side of it that I do today if not for that experience. And for younger people, it really is important, like you were saying, for them to understand that this was something that the whole country went through collectively. And then in the aftermath of the September eleventh attacks, like you detailed, it really was unlike anything we've seen since. This coming together of the country. I
remember there were American flags everywhere. I mean you couldn't go down a neighborhood block without seeing them lining the streets, and there was this sense of togetherness. So let's get to how you and others turned this tragic, horrific event into something positive for our country. How did the idea of a day of service come together?
Yeah, I think it kind of just presented itself to us. You know, it was obvious because that's how our nation was responding to the tragedy itself. We were all unified, we were all anxious to help. People were shipping teddy bears, they were showing up to try to donate blood. There were all these spontaneous volunteers that appeared in New York City from all around the nation, you know, from Kentucky and Nashville, Wisconsin. All these folks that just wanted to
figure out a way to volunteer to help it. And I think that was essentially what nine to eleven Day, you know, is and became. It was merely a sort of recreation of the innate sort of sense of unity and goodness.
That we all share.
But it's a bit it's intended to be a bit of a reminder so that each nine to eleven we recognize that it's important for us to stop as human beings in our daily lives and remember it's what's most important, you know, it's really each other and our families and being kind and trying to help the world, try to
make things a little better for everybody. And so the inspiration really came from just the we all responded to the tragedy itself, you know, and then of course it's one thing to have an idea and it's another thing to actually accomplish it. And I think that was one of the things that Jay and I learned that, you know, it's a lot more difficult than you think to take something an idea like that and actually turning into something like what it is today, the largest data service in the country.
That that was a big challenge.
And I think when nine to eleven Day of Service comes to mind for me, it goes right back to those men and women who were there at ground zero that day, who were running into the towers as so many were trying to run out of them. You know that that sacrifice, and like you had alluded to earlier, you know, they weren't stopping and asking people what political party they belonged to, what race they were, or anything.
I mean, they were just they were just looking to save people, and even those who were trying to escape uh that area after the towers came down, Like you mentioned someone you knew who was pulled into a building and escaped that cloud of rubble. You know, there was no like, who is this person? Should I have that?
You just you just did it. And it's that sense of service that it's such a great reminder every year that that is still part of this country and it's so important for us to go back to that and for younger generations to feel that as well.
And I think it's an important reminder that we can have our differences of opinion, and in fact we're going to I mean, there are billions of people, you know,
on the planet. You know, we we share this place with them, and each and every one of us we're born into a different experience, in a different life, in a different family with whatever you know goes on in our lives and the trauma and the teachings and all those things, and so naturally there are going to be If there are billions of people in the world, there
are going to be billions of different perspectives. And in fact, that's sort of what is so I think magical and remarkable and beautiful about you know, our experience on the planet here. Diversity is what we are. You know, there's no two trees that look the same, there's no two blades of grass that are the same, no two snowflakes that are the same, and there are no two people
that are the same. And for some reason or another, in spite of the fact that that's what's natural, we sometimes look at the differences that we have as a negative when in reality reality it's a masterpiece of creation. And I think that nine to eleven should be a reminder that despite the fact that we are different that and and have and will have differences, that underneath that there is a connection that we all share from the
moment we're born, we're endowed with the same things. And if we can learn how to tap into that part of ourselves a little more frequently in our everyday lives, and not just when some terrible tragedy awakens our innate
human spirit. You know, if we can learn how to live our lives like that a little bit more frequently, with that goodness at its forefront, then we could look at each other and respect each other's differences and know that we can work that out, that we can find solutions because we fundamentally do want the same things as human beings. And that's the lesson that we need to pass on to future generations as a result of the
nine to eleven experience. That's what they need to learn, not what the terrorists did to us.
We're joined by David Payne, president and co founder of nine to eleven Day. You can learn more at nine to eleven Day dot org. That's nine one one day dot org. The nine to eleven Day of Service, of course, coming up on Wednesday, is something you just said. I
was thinking about it for a moment. We do see in the aftermath of a tragedy like what we experienced on September eleventh, two thousand and one, or different natural disasters, whether it's a hurricane or wildfires or floods, tornadoes, things like that, you really do see that coming together of a community, and it is such a shame that sometimes it takes those kinds of events to bring people together and for them to put, you know, all the nonsense aside for a little bit and focus in on just
helping others and having this day every year where we can kind of refocus on that more generally. I think that is a tremendous experience. So when you were coming up with the nine to eleven Day of Service, you have this idea, what is it that you envisioned it becoming.
Well, I think we just wanted to recreate that moment of unity and togetherness because it touched me deeply. You know, I never experienced anything like that in my life, where we just quit worrying about our differences and we like, you know, we treated.
Each other well.
I remember that just a few months after the attacks, at the State of the Union address, members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats chose to sit next to one another rather than opposite sides of the aisle. You know, they were trying to demonstrate that we and that we might have differences of opinion, but that we're all human beings, that we care and that we care for one another.
And I think our desire was to simply recreate that as a reminder of who we truly are and what matters most in our lives, which is each other.
Now, I don't think Jay, I.
Think anticipated that it would grow to the proportions that it.
Has, where it's the largest day of service in America.
I mean, we have thirty million people that are going to get out this nine to eleven and engage in good deed doing and expressions of unity and kindness. I
don't think we thought that that would happen. And in fact, as the years went by, you know, after five, six, seven years, we started wondering if you know, if it would be too late, that the further we got away from nine to eleven, that and fewer people would be interested in it in the idea of nine eleven A. And then I you know, it's actually been the opposite. Year over year, the further away we get from that tragedy, the bigger the audiences that we have for this day
of doing good, this day of unity. And I think it's just because that's what people want.
In their lives. They want that in America. That's who we all are. We don't want to fight.
I mean, who wants that, you know, you can fight every now and then if you have to, and we all do that and fight for the things we believe in. But ultimately, you know, we're creatures that want to cooperate with one another and get along. So I think that's one of the reasons the day just continues to grow because there's no expiration date on kindness in helping others.
What was it like getting this day of service to become officially recognized under federal law. That must have been quite an undertaking.
Yeah, it took us quite a while to ultimately get nine to eleven establishes that they have service under federal law, about.
Eight years, and we were a little surprised that it took that long.
And some people say that that's because quote, there's no such thing as a no brainer in Washington, but I
will say this, that's not really true. I think we came in, you know, you know, came forth with this idea, maybe a little before it's time, you know, And as I said, just after nine to eleven, we were in the throes of a a very frightening period in our country, and we were wondering if we were going to be attacked again, and so the idea of sort of observing nine to eleven is sort of this day of peace and togetherness as a way of remembering and keeping the promise to never forget.
I think that had to grow on.
People, but ultimately, year over year, you know, on a bipartisan basis, both Democrats and Republicans really warmed to the idea because I think they understood that if we didn't sort of transform nine to eleven into a day of doing good, or to a day where it be of interest to say future generations, that as the years would go by and people would who had memories would pass away, that we would just lose our awareness of the significance of that moment and it would be impossible to keep
the promise and never forget. So I think everybody came to understand that transforming it into something good was actually the way in which we would be capable of keeping the promise and never forget, remembering that people lost their lives and honoring the many who rose in service in response to the attacks.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by David Payne, President and co founder of nine to eleven Day. You can learn more at nine eleven Day dot org. That's nine one day dot Org. This Wednesday, of course, is the nine to eleven Day of Service. So what exactly does that entail?
A day of service, Well, it's we call it a day of service, but really it's a day of doing good.
So it's whatever anybody wants to do.
It's, you know, basically the ritual of waking up on nine to eleven and saying yourself, Okay, how can I make a difference either to someone in my family, to my neighborhood, to my community, to my school or faith organization, or or to the nation at large?
What can I do that that would help others in need? And so the objective is just to come up with some good deed that you can do. Whatever it is.
You know, you can give away clothing or make a donation to a charity you know, or you can even do something for yourself. You could quit smoking, or start an exercise program, or maybe read a book to you know, to a child, or take your kids to the zoo, or just do something out of the ordinary where you're just you know, you're bringing out the innate goodness in yourself.
That's that's really the true definition of nine to eleven day.
Now that said, we have millions of people that volunteer around the country on nine to eleven. It's the largest day of volunteering in the country today, and it's the largest single day of corporate volunteer engagement just involving our volunteer projects that we stage around the country, and we have twenty one of them this year where we'll pack close to eight point five million meals for Americans at risk of hunger and mobilize close to thirty thousand volunteers.
We have over five hundred companies that have signed on to participate and support that program, and there's not another day where all these companies come together to do this one thing. And then across the country, we have over thirty million people that are doing all sorts of charitable work. So it's really about whatever anybody wants to do. But we as an organization also host some really great projects all around the country.
Can you tell us about the Meal Packs initiative. I know it says on the website again nine eleven day dot Org that for twenty twenty four it's reached its maximum capacity, but you're already looking to give out information for next year. So what exactly is that part of nine to eleven Day.
Yeah, the meal packs were started in twenty sixteen when we decided it would be important to organize large events all across the country so that Americans, no matter where you lived, would have an opportunity if they wanted to, to participate in a big volunteer project and observance of that day.
And it's grown dramatically.
Our first one was just in New York and now, of course we'll be in twenty one cities from coast to coast. Next year, we're hoping to expand to as
many as twenty five. And since they do essentially fill up very very quickly, it's not too early for organizations, you know, corporations or nonprofits and other groups to send us an inquiry right now and say, hey, we're really interested learning more about this, and then we can you know, we can reach out to them soon after this observance is over and get them kind of set up for
next year. But you know what happens in a lot of these locations is that we pack, as I mentioned, meals and dry nonperishable meals and they're donated right to the local Feeding America affiliated food bank in these communities, and a lot of people don't understand that. You know, a hunger is a continuing and significant crisis in America today.
I think Feeding America estimates at over forty two A.
Million Americans or more are at risk of hunger every single day and they don't know where their next.
Meal is going to come from.
And so we decided that since September is Hunger Action Month, it made sense for us to focus in on packing meals.
So that's what we do all across the.
Country, and companies send teams anywhere from like five people all the way up to some of our bigger partners like Delta Airlines and Reliant Steel and others that send hundreds of people all across the country in different locations.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by David Payne, President and co founder of nine to eleven Day. Again. You can learn more and support this tremendous undertaking at nine one one day dot org. That's nine to eleven Day dot org. What about the resources you have, the lessons and activities for teachers ahead of the nine to eleven Day of service.
Yeah, there couldn't be anything more important than teaching young people about nine to eleven and not just the tragy of the day, but how it taught us how much we all have in common as human beings. That innate goodness that you know, arose within billions of people from all walks of life, all around the world, not just
in America. And you know that for us, nine to eleven is a really important teaching moment, and so we've created an extraordinary curricula of educational materials and lesson plans all age appropriate. The teachers can access directly from our website. They go to nine to eleven day dot Org. There's a teacher section and there's just a ton of stuff in there. I mean, like I said, there's all sorts of great lesson plans. There's videos, there's photographs, we have
historical pictures. We have a wealth of resources that teachers and parents can use to explain to children what happened on nine to eleven and whyat is so important to our country. You know, when you have one hundred million people that have no memories of the attacks, it's really up to us and those that remember what happened, you included, you know, to pass that what we learned onto our next generation.
How much has interest in all of this, whether it's the meal packs, or the lesson plans, the guides that you have available, and not just for teachers, I should mention there are also resources for parents and other groups. How much has the interest in all of that grown in recent years.
I'll tell you the interest in nine to eleven day has absolutely exploded over the last couple of years.
And you know it.
And it might be, you know, a function of what we all went through with COVID, where you know, we had to suspend some of our projects for a year and scale things back, and so maybe there's a certain degree of pent up interest in wanting to bring particularly employees back together again, whether there is an in person opportunity for them to volunteer together as a team. But
I think it's more than that. I think it's just that our country is is craving the opportunity to join together and be unified and to do good and to do good things. You know, the more we're you know, convinced or told that we're divided, you know, at the political level, I think the more there's sort of almost a soulful backlash, you know, within all of.
Us that encourage us to want to think of a way to bring out the goodness that we actually do have. You know, it's not.
All about politics, and so, you know, nine to eleven days a bit of an antidote for the divisiveness that we're seeing in our world every day right.
Now, when people across the country are involved in NILAE even day of service coming up this Wednesday, and they want to share what they're doing to help in their community. Do you all have a way, whether it's a hashtag or something along those lines, for them to share those images, those pictures, videos, things like that so others can see what's happening again nationwide.
Yeah, one of the great rituals of the nine to eleven Day Observance is that people from all around the nation and the world share their sort of plans for the day using the hashtag hashtag nine to eleven day, So nine to one one day and it's amazing.
So you'll see you'll see little children in classrooms holding up little cards where they've written sort of what they plan to do for nine to eleven and maybe that they're going to give away toys that they no longer play with, their clothing that they've outgrown, or they're going to go with their classmates to a local park and help clean up, and then we'll see pictures of all that on Instagram or Facebook and TikTok, and it's really
becoming a extraordinary way to track how this nation is participating, because honestly, we don't know all the amazing things that people are doing. You know, we're talking about millions of people all getting out and doing all sorts of great things, and it's the social media side that tells us sort of what's happening and gives us sort of a window into the goodness that people have. So we definitely encourage people to share what their plans are for nine to eleven.
And you know, even if they don't have a good deed, if they just want to share a message of support and directed to the nine to eleven families, or to first responders, or to members of our military, just sort of a positive, constructive, helpful message that encourages unity and togetherness, that's a great thing.
So all of that's great.
They're literally you know, there's no such things as a bad good deed, so you know, all good deeds count.
And final question for you, how can everyone listening support the work you're doing with nine to eleven Day? What are some different ways that whether it's an individual listening right now or someone who owns a company, what are the different things they can do to continue to support this work each year.
Well, you know, even though our program touches a lot of people and has grown to the degree that it has, we're still a relatively small nonprofit, you know, on a modest budget, and certainly to the degree that people are interested.
In helping us out, they can go to nine to eleven Day dot.
Org and make a donation of just eleven bucks, you know, to help kind of keep our lights on and help us organize the projects that we are planning to stage as we move forward.
You know, keep in mind that in just two years will all be observing the twenty fifth anniversary of nine to eleven in twenty twenty six, so we're already gearing up for that.
So if anybody wants to help and they'd like to make a donation to us, please go to nine eleven Day dot org and make a contribution.
That would be a great help, all right.
President and co founder of nine to eleven Day, David Payne with us to talk about the nine to eleven Day of Service again coming up this Wednesday, you can learn more and support all the tremendous work they're doing it nine eleven day dot org. That's nine one one day dot org. David, I want to thank you so much for coming back on the show. It's always great to have you on. Best of luck with nine to eleven day of service this Wednesday, and we look forward to talking to you again soon.
Thanks again, Ryan.
All right, and that's going to do it for this special edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up, I want to offer a big thanks to all of our guests and of course to all of you for listening. If you want to hear previous episodes of this show, we're on your iHeartRadio app. Just search for iHeartRadio Communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.