A new documentary chronicles how Mahopac resident Jay Winuk helped transform the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks into a National Day of Service—an effort now receiving a boost from comedian and actor Pete Davidson.
The documentary, “9/11 Day,” was premiered on Sept. 1, in a special screening at the Intrepid Museum hosted by the Tribeca Festival organization. It traces the nearly quarter-century effort to turn one of the darkest dates in American history into an annual occasion for charitable service and good deeds.
"It got a standing ovation," Winuk said.
Its documentary's release comes as the nonprofit 9/11 Day launches “UNIITE For Good,” a nationwide campaign calling on Americans to pledge 1 million good deeds by Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Davidson, whose father, New York City firefighter Scott Davidson, was killed on 9/11, is helping launch the campaign through a video message and social media challenge encouraging Americans to honor those who died through acts of service.
“9/11 will always be a hard day,” Davidson said. “But I also grew up seeing what came after—people showing up for each other. Twenty-five years later, we can honor the people we lost by doing the same for our community.”
The documentary was directed by award-winning filmmakers Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs, whose previous work includes “102 Minutes That Changed America,” a documentary about the attacks that received three Primetime Emmy Awards.
The new film examines the origins of 9/11 Day, its development into a national movement and the personal stories that inspired its creation. It also considers how the meaning of the anniversary can be passed to younger Americans who have no firsthand memory of the attacks.
At the center of that story is Winuk, a longtime Mahopac resident who co-founded the organization following the death of his younger brother, Glenn, on 9/11.
Glenn Winuk, 40, was a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm in lower Manhattan and served in the Jericho Fire Department on Long Island for about 20 years as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. After the World Trade Center was attacked, he left his nearby office and rushed to the South Tower to help.
His partial remains were discovered about six months later with a stethoscope, protective gloves and a medic bag, indicating that he had likely been assisting the injured when the tower collapsed.
“In all likelihood, he had been working triage in what had been the lobby area at the South Tower,” Jay Winuk said in a 2024 interview. “He was heroic and he was a great guy. He was always giving, whether it was in his role as a firefighter and EMT, or as a lawyer, always at the ready to help friends and family with his legal expertise and mentoring younger lawyers.”
Glenn was posthumously inducted into the FDNY Honor Legion in 2006. According to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, he also received citations for his response to the 1995 Suffolk County wildfires and the 1990 Avianca plane crash on Long Island.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Jay Winuk and fellow public relations professional David Paine began an effort to encourage Americans to mark the anniversary by helping others. They co-founded the nonprofit now known as 9/11 Day in 2002 and advocated for federal recognition of Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
That designation was enacted into law in 2009. The observance has since grown into what the organization describes as the nation’s largest annual day of charitable engagement.
“The premise of the campaign is intentionally accessible: You don’t need to run into a burning building, as my brother did on 9/11, to make a difference,” said Winuk, the organization’s co-founder and executive vice president. “You simply need to do something good to help someone else, and that’s how we can help keep the promise to ‘Never Forget’ for generations to come.”
The “UNIITE For Good” campaign asks participants to pledge acts ranging from helping a neighbor and donating blood to thanking a first responder, supporting a food bank or volunteering with a local nonprofit. Davidson is also launching “UNIITE With Me,” a friend-to-friend and social media challenge in which participants perform or pledge good deeds and invite others to join them.
The initiative will include large-scale volunteer projects in 51 cities. More than 50,000 volunteers representing over 700 companies are expected to pack approximately 18 million meals for food banks and other hunger-relief organizations.
The nonprofit is also distributing $3 million in grants to approximately 200 schools, nonprofits and community groups in 40 states. More than 70 percent of that funding will go to youth organizations, schools and universities.
The focus on young people reflects one of the central challenges explored in the documentary: More than 100 million Americans were born after the attacks and know 9/11 only as history.
“For millions of younger Americans, 9/11 is history rather than memory,” Paine said. “That makes it even more important that we pass along not only the story of what happened that morning, but also what happened afterward—the compassion, service and remarkable sense of unity that emerged across the country.”
The observance will culminate with a national moment of silence at 9:11 a.m. Sept. 11, originating in Times Square.
For Winuk, both the documentary — which will be released to the public in 2027 — and the new campaign bring renewed attention to the mission he has pursued since losing his brother.
“Our goal is for Americans to take back the day—to turn the anniversary of 9/11 into America’s day for doing good,” he said. “That’s how we intend to help keep the promise to never forget.”
For more information or to pledge a good deed, visit 911day.org.
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