A Day of Remembrance, A Day of Service

This year, Sept. 11 will again be a day for reflecting on the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it will also be a time for hundreds of thousands of Americans to serve their communities. The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance is a key part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed into law by President Obama in April, four months before the Massachusetts senator's death. In his inauguration address, Obama called for an outpouring of the volunteer "spirit that must inhabit us all." He followed up by pushing for the Serve America Act, creating the largest expansion of national volunteer service since the inception of AmeriCorps in 1993. For those who have engaged in service days regularly for years, the national day of service is a way to standardize their efforts on a single day. For those who have never served, it's an incentive to get involved. And for some of those who have been part of the 9/11 memorials to the lives lost eight years ago, it's the culmination of a dream.