01
Commemorative Opening Ceremony
A grounding opening that shares the history and lasting significance of September 11 for a generation born after it.
#SeedsOfService911A partnership between 9/11 Day · AmeriCorps · SERVENYS · chromatic black™
25th Anniversary · September 2026
Remembrance.Resilience.Gratitude.
Seeds of Service for 9/11 Day plants the lessons of September 11 in a new generation at Hempstead High School. Nearly 2000 students will experience a day of commemoration, guided conversations on grief and resilience, and hands-on care package assembly for youth in NYC shelters.
In partnership with
Youth Leading the Way
Service Is a Classroom
The most important lessons aren’t always taught from behind a desk. They’re learned by living them — by feeling, connecting, and showing up for ourselves and one another. Watch how a single day turns remembrance into action for a new generation.
What the Day Looks Like
Hempstead High School. One Day. One Generation.
Nearly 2000 students will experience a day of commemoration, guided conversations on grief and resilience, and hands-on care package assembly for youth in NYC shelters.
Planting the Lessons of 9/11
in a New Generation.
Remembrance · Resilience · Gratitude
02
9/11 Remembrance Throughout the Day
A brief 9/11 remembrance video played at the beginning of each class, school monitors displaying rotating content — powerful stories of resilience, quotes, and images — throughout the day, and a moment of silence at 8:46 AM marking when the first plane struck the North Tower, with the moment of each subsequent plane strike acknowledged on screen throughout the morning.
03
Grief and Resilience Workshop
Led by qualified grief and resilience facilitators, with curriculum co-created by the facilitator team and chromatic black™ — practical tools for navigating grief, healing, and hard moments.
04
Care Package Assembly
Students assemble winter care packages — socks, gloves, hats, jackets, and school supplies — for youth living in NYC's shelter system, each with a handwritten note of gratitude and care.
05
Gratitude Wall
An ongoing station where students, families, and guests post reflections on guided prompts, later compiled for the post-event report.
06
Closing
A closing reflection and goody bags with a take-home seed packet — remembrance, resilience, and gratitude as things that keep growing.
Why Care Packages
As of June 2026, 28,645 children were sleeping in New York City DHS and HPD shelters nightly, and more than 154,000 NYC schoolchildren experienced homelessness at some point last school year alone. Many are close in age to the students assembling these packages themselves.
Each package includes winter essentials and school supplies, along with a handwritten note of encouragement, so the young person receiving it knows a stranger their own age thought of them. It’s a small, direct way of living out what September 11 taught an entire generation: that showing up for someone you’ll never meet is still showing up.
Every package a student assembles turns remembrance into something a neighbor can hold.
About the Movement
A School, United In Remembrance, Learning, and Service
Together, we can mark the 25th anniversary of September 11 with a day that educates, steadies, and uplifts young people across our communities.
A School, United In Remembrance, Learning, and Service
Youth, veterans, families, and neighbors coming together to learn, reflect, and honor the legacy of 9/11 through action that matters.
Project Partners
Seeds of Service for 9/11 Day is made possible through the partnership of veteran-led service and national narrative strategy.
About SERVENYS
For Anthony “AJ” Knight, serving veterans is deeply personal. A U.S. Navy veteran, 9/11 First Responder, and veteran living with PTSD, Anthony understands that returning home does not always mean finding your way home.
He meets veterans where they are — sometimes literally. In the woods. Behind grocery stores. In shelters, temporary housing, or wherever life has taken them. He seeks out the veterans who can be the easiest to overlook: those experiencing homelessness, living with the effects of trauma, disconnected from traditional systems of support, or struggling to find their footing in civilian life.
Through SERVENYS — Serving Every Returning Veteran Equitably — Anthony approaches each veteran first with dignity and respect. He listens, builds trust, and works alongside them to close the gaps between where they are and the benefits, housing, mental health and wellness resources, employment opportunities, and community support they need. The work is not simply about making a referral; it is about helping veterans navigate the distance between being eligible for help and actually receiving it.
Anthony’s experience has also taught him that caring for veterans cannot begin only after someone reaches a crisis. Communities must learn how to recognize struggle, understand trauma, care for one another, and carry forward a culture of service.
That belief is at the heart of Seeds of Service, SERVENYS’s youth-centered service and learning initiative created in recognition of the 25th anniversary of September 11. The project brings young people into conversation with veterans, 9/11 survivors and responders, mental health professionals, and community leaders to explore service, sacrifice, grief, resilience, mental health, and what it means to show up for your community.
Through learning, human connection, and hands-on service, Seeds of Service carries Anthony’s philosophy to the next generation: see people, meet them where they are, and never allow those who need community most to become invisible.
About chromatic black™
chromatic black™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and national narrative strategy organization that builds cultural power through the reclamation of STORY. Powered by a collective of artists, strategists, organizers, and cultural practitioners, we work beneath policy and programs to transform the narratives that shape what communities believe is true, possible, and deserved. Through art, education, film, live and digital experiences, strategic campaigns, and community-based initiatives, we create and advance narratives capable of supporting lasting social change. With more than 25 years of nationally recognized work addressing complex social and community challenges, chromatic black™ bridges cultural strategy and creative practice to build the conditions in which equity and transformative change can take root and endure.
Get Involved
Be Part of Something Meaningful
Volunteers, sponsors, community partners, schools, and neighbors — every role helps a seed take root.
Become a Sponsor
Invest in impact. Change lives.
Sponsor care package supplies, transportation, or an entire host site. Your logo travels with the mission.
Become a Community Partner
Build connections. Create impact.
Businesses, nonprofits, civic groups, and organizations can support the event through volunteers, resources, outreach, or expertise. Together, we can strengthen our community.
Volunteer
Give your time. Inspire hope.
Serve alongside youth at a host site — check-in, care package assembly, the Gratitude Wall, or welcoming families as they arrive.
Donate Supplies
Warm a winter. Lift a kid.
Socks, gloves, hats, jackets, school supplies, seed packets, and planters fill the care packages headed to youth in NYC shelters.
Learn Before You Serve
Eyewitness to 9/11: Behind the Lens
Watch this powerful eyewitness account to understand the human story behind September 11 and why remembrance still matters today.
Register
Reserve Your Spot
Fill out the form below. All fields except phone number are required.
A Partnership Between