“Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of Americans went to work and never came home. Firefighters, police officers, flight crews, office workers, service workers, and men and women in uniform gave everything that day. Their families have carried that loss for a quarter century,” said Ignacio Salazar, President & CEO of SER National. “We remember each of them not as a number but as a neighbor, a colleague, a parent and a friend whose life had purpose and whose absence is still felt.”
America has not forgotten, and it has not stood still. The country reformed how it protects its people, strengthened the bonds among its communities, and rediscovered a shared sense of purpose.
“At SER, we honor them by doing what they were doing that morning: showing up, working hard, and giving our best to one another,” Salazar said. For SER National and the SER Network of Affiliates, that story of loss and the promise of rebuilding is also a story about work. Every year, the SER Network serves more than one million people seeking training, skills, employment, and a path to opportunity. The SER Network joins the nation in a solemn moment of remembrance and in a renewed commitment to the opportunity, unity, and strength that define America at its best.
“Today, I ask every American to do three things,” Salazar said. “Pause and remember the lives lost and the families who still grieve. Thank the first responders in your community who stand ready to run toward danger. And then go to work, in whatever form that takes, with the same devotion those we lost brought to theirs. Mentor someone. Hire someone. Train someone. Give of yourself to others, because that is how this country has always grown stronger, and that is how we keep faith with those who gave everything on September 11, 2001.”