SYRACUSE -- Volunteers are cleaning up a neighborhood and remembering the victims of a national tragedy that forever changed us all.
Volunteers are working on landscaping and sprucing up Syracuse’s Hawley Green neighborhood.
Nancy Keefe Rhoades lives next to the parking lot in Syracuse’s Hawley Green neighborhood where the project is taking place
She says the overgrown brush makes it easy for people to litter and it fosters criminal activity. The volunteers, including Rhoades, are working to clean it up.
"This is a real problem. Not only as you can see it is an eyesore but there is entirely too much privacy here," says Rhoades.
The volunteer project, organized by the United Way, was held specifically on September 11th. United Way workers and neighbors lent a hand not only to clean up Syracuse, but also to pay tribute to the victims killed in the terrorist attacks 11 years ago.
Justin Lynch, with the United Way, says the project ties in with 9/11. He says volunteering with this effort a way to remember those who volunteered to serve the country in the days and months following 9/11.
While this is the first year for this event, organizers hope it will kick off a movement.
"In New York State, what we're doing right now is trying to mobilize a million volunteers because New York actually ranked last on the list in terms of volunteer service. So by giving back today, it's just one way to show your support," says Lynch.
It's all part of a national effort.
"As President Obama said, we have nation building to do here, and this is part of building the nation, cleaning up our neighborhood," says Rhoades.
