500 volunteers better community on Greater Cincinnati's first 9/11 Day

Cincinnati Cares, Bengals partner with more than two dozen nonprofits for two days of service

Cincinnati Bell employees volunteer to help Brighton Center. File photo.

For the first time ever, a “National Day of Service” for Sept. 11 is being organized for Greater Cincinnati, thanks to Cincinnati Cares, a local nonprofit working to improve the region’s volunteer ecosystem.

“Our mission is to inspire and empower people to engage in volunteering, and it was surprising to us that Cincinnati had not embraced Sept. 11 as a day of service to remember those affected by the tragic events that rocked our world that day,” said Carol Rountree, Cincinnati Cares’ chief volunteer officer. “So one of our first areas of work is to improve how Greater Cincinnatians embrace this and all recognized national days of service.”

Today, 9/11 Day has grown to become the nation’s largest annual day of charitable engagement, with more than 15 million Americans, and others around the world, taking time out each September 11 to volunteer, support charities, and perform simple good deeds in remembrance of the victims of terrorism on 9/11, and other terrorist acts that continue to happen around the world.

More than two dozen nonprofits have agreed to host volunteers, many made for children and working adults, on Sept. 11 and Sept. 14 through more than 30 different projects.

Participating nonprofits include:
● Cancer Support Community
● Cincinnati Community ToolBank
● Cincinnati Parks
● Circle Tail, Inc.
● Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati
● Community Learning Center Institute
● Findlay Market
● Crayons to Computers
● Easterseals Serving Greater Cincinnati
● EPIC House
● Family Promise of Northern Kentucky, Inc.
● Findlay Kitchen
● Imago
● Redwood School & Rehabilitation Center
● SELF (Supports to Encourage Low-income Families)
● Sidestreams 500 Gardens
 ● St. Francis Seraph Ministries
● St. Vincent de Paul
● Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank
● The Healing Center
● United Pet Fund
● Valley View Foundation
● Women’s Crisis Center
● Working In Neighborhoods
● YWCA of Greater Cincinnati

Cincinnati Cares is already working on doing a similar day of service in January for the Martin Luther King national holiday. For more information or questions, contact Rountree at  carol@inspiringservice.org.



“I have loved planning a city-wide day of service that is open to anyone in Greater Cincinnati,” said Rountree, the main organizer of the event. “The nonprofits who are participating seem so grateful for the opportunity to not only get needed work done at their organization, but to have a chance to engage volunteers that may not know about the work they are doing in the community.”

Launched in late 2017, the Cincinnati Cares technology platform https://cincinnaticares.org/  is the most popular way for people in Greater Cincinnati to find their way to help. The organization also operates a platform that connects volunteer leaders to nonprofit boards.