The Hyrum City Cemetery will be one of the place people will come on the Sept. 11 Day of Service and Remembrance.
MENDON – On Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, thousands of residents will descend on cemeteries throughout Cache Valley with buckets, brooms and brushes in hand to clean headstones and monuments. The National Day of Service and Remembrance project is expected to last two hours from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.
The National Day of Service and Remembrance, or Patriots Day, is federally recognized in the United States and falls on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Service rendered that day is a way to honor the 3,000 lives lost, including many first responders who rushed into the Twin Towers to save people and never came out.
The Mendon Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is spearheading the National Day of Service and Remembrance for the south end of the valley by inviting other church congregations, service groups and community members across the valley to join them in sprucing up cemeteries.
President Glen Harris, first counselor in the Mendon Stake Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been asked to chair the steering committee of nine stakes at the south end of the valley.
“Most of the cemeteries in the valley will get a general cleaning, polishing and tidying up,” he said. “We plan to clean all the bird droppings and take care and clean whatever monuments we can identify.”
The Utah Area Presidency of the church is asking all faith-based organizations to come together and participate in commemorating Sept. 11. Everyone is invited, including children, young adults, individuals and families to help in this largescale community effort.
“Every stake in the Northern Utah Area has been asked to participate,” Harris said. “The way people can find out where to go and what to do in their local community is register on JustServe.org.”
Willing participants can visit JustServe.org or download the Just Serve app on your phone. Click Sign in/Register and enter first and last name then add your Zip Code. Follow the instructions and enter the number of people that are participating.
Participants will use water and soft brushes to gently clean the headstones and brooms to clean grass clippings from the basses of the headstones and monuments.
“Let us remember the good we can accomplish when we come together,” Harris said. “We would like everyone to remember what it was like after 9/11 when we had a need to come together.”
It doesn’t have to stop after the 9/11 National Day of Service.
“Our stake gets together with other faiths and puts together Christmas Baskets for the needy,” he said. “The Wellsville Stake works on community projects with their city.”
Volunteers and professional storytellers will be on hand at the cemeteries to share family history activities and help participants find ancestors, interesting people and facts about the people interred there.