Fidelity Serves with City Year on 9/11

As President Obama stated on 9.11, “I call upon all Americans to join in service and honor the lives we lost, the heroes who responded in our hour of need, and the brave men and women in uniform who continue to protect our country at home and abroad. In April, I was proud to sign the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which recognizes September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance.”

In an answer to this call, more than 40 Fidelity Investments employees joined City Year, Council Member Eric Gioia, and NYC Chief Service Officer Diahann Billings-Burford to serve at PS 83 in East Harlem. Volunteers completed murals for the school’s playground space, built planter boxes and benches for the garden. Mike Sonier, a Senior Vice President at Fidelity, said the following about the day, “Fidelity associates left PS 83 on Friday afternoon with a tremendous feeling of positive energy that comes from doing something for others in need. This event also allowed us to spend September 11 serving America while remembering the events from eight years ago.” Thank you to everyone who served on this day.

Enjoy pictures of the day below.

A Day of Reflection, Remembrance, and Service

A letter from Itai Dinour, Executive Director, to the staff and corps.

Team,

This morning, the NYTimes ran a moving editorial about 9.11 becoming a national day of service under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

As many of you know, 9.11 has a special place in the founding of City Year New York. On that tragic day, even before there was a site in our city, red jackets happened to be serving with Timberland in the South Bronx. Despite the news of the morning, Timberland and City Year made a commitment to not only finish that day’s projects, but to serve on future 9.11 days as a way of remembering the good in our society. In addition, it was the overwhelming civic spirit and pride that mobilized City Year alumni to lobby the national organization to open a site in New York as a living tribute.

Eight years later, we have kept our commitment and tomorrow will be no exception. Below is a brief overview of some of the many things that our community is blessed to partake in:

- the entire corps, under your leadership, will be mobilized to serve in their communities. From landscaping to helping a local CBO to set-up a new office, these physical service projects will support our local partners.

- at Ground Zero, Dan Lee, Matt Hartung, and Kristina Marrett will join families of 9.11 victims in the sacred act of reading the names of those our city lost during the official 9.11 Memorial.

- with the generous sponsorship of Fidelity, PS 83 will welcome corps members, Fidelity employees, partners in the service movement, and friends for an afternoon of service under the leadership of our NYCE teams, Joshua and Maris.

- more than 50 corps and staff members will finish their day by attending the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance Commemoration at the Beacon Theater – an event sponsored by City Year friends, MyGoodDeed and ServiceNation. Our very own Nicole Tsang will represent all of City Year and AmeriCorps as she introduces Secretary of State Clinton, who served as the Honorary Co-Chair of our Founding Committee in New York. The event will feature other champions of service and notables including Governor Patterson, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots.

Wherever your day takes you tomorrow, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what this day means for you and your service journey.

I am humbled to work beside all of you.

Yours,
Itai

Photos from all of the days events to come . . .

Cities of Service Launched in NYC

On Thursday, September 10th Mayor Bloomberg was joined by mayors from 16 cities across the country to launch Cities of Service, a bipartisan coalition who will work together to engage millions more volunteers in service. The founding mayors signed a Declaration of Service, a commitment to finding new ways to tap the power of volunteers to address each city’s most pressing challenges.

Senior Corps members Carlos Mendoza and Liz Laber were joined by Alums Joahan Suarez and Nicole Markley to represent City Year at the launch. Click below to see pictures from the event.

A group of CYNY Senior Corps Members will attend the VMAs on Sunday as special guests

MTV is recognizing 50 young volunteers from the Boys & Girls Club, City Year and Youth Build for getting involved in their local communities by bringing them to the MTV VMA Awards to catch all of the night’s action.

Serve.MTV.com is MTV’s platform to connect young people with a wide range of ways to get active in their local communities, launched in response to surging youth interest in volunteerism, as well as the President and First Lady’s call for Americans to become more involved in service. Find out more online at Serve.MTV.com.