Today’s guest post is written by Kimberly Boyd, Vice President of Mobilization and Impact at HandsOn Network, and member of the 9/11 day of service team committed to making 9/11 a historic day of service.

I wanted to share a unique and watershed moment we had in Washington this past Thursday.  I wanted to celebrate the remarkable efforts of a truly cross-functional team of experts who made this day possible.

Thursday July 14^th, in Washington D.C, dozens of Members of Congress (Pelossi, Schumer, King, Matsui, and others) came together across partisan lines to stitch the National 9/11 Flag and to call Americans to service in honor of the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11.

I want to personally thank and call out all of those who played a significant role in Thursday’s success.  Michelle for her inspiration and guidance, Amy for steadfast determination and focus, Anne, Jen and the team for media engagement, messaging and branding, Cybil and Terri and their teams for the remarkable details required for an event such as this, Madden and the corporate team for the financial support that makes it all possible; Julie and Kerby for rallying a remarkable response from Congress, Frank for his management of congressional staffers – truly a unique talent put to good use, Heather for helping to organize in this great effort, Delores for her guidance and support in figuring out the management of this truly enterprise wide effort, Jesse and Melissa for developing half a million volunteer commitments through partners, Bri, Gary and the AA team for supporting the engagement of the field, Chris, Trevor, Tymm, and Alison for making sure that the web-presence worked against all odds, Americorps Alums, genOn and the list goes on…

I cannot adequately express my gratitude, please know that I genuinely appreciate each and every one of you.  This was a watershed moment in this movement.

I encourage everyone to visit the newly released 911day.org site and post personal tributes – messages of thanks and honor for those who were lost and those who rose in service.  It is a remarkable experience to dedicate your act of service to an individual – take the time and you will not regret the investment.