More than 60 VA national cemeteries will host National Day of Service events on Sept. 11, 2023. These events will honor the Veterans, service members, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, and other first responders who served and sacrificed for the nation Sept. 11, 2001, and in the 22 years since.

All are welcome to participate in these events, where volunteers will clean headstones and participate in other beautification activities at VA national cemeteries.

“On 9/11, we encourage all Americans to join us at one of our national cemeteries to volunteer and pay tribute to our nation’s heroes,” Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn said. “By volunteering on this day of service, by cleaning a headstone and saying their names, we tell these heroes our nation has not forgotten all they sacrificed for us.” 

VA’s National Cemetery Administration is partnering with Carry The Load to host this National Day of Service. To learn more and view a list of participating cemeteries and start times, visit NCA National Day of Service. Volunteers can register here. Cleaning supplies and other materials will be provided. There is no cost to participate.

On this National Day of Service, all start times at the cemeteries are at 10 a.m. local time, on Monday, September 11, except at these locations:

  • Houston National Cemetery in Texas and Baton Rouge National Cemetery in Louisiana will take place at 8 a.m. (local time) on September 9.
  • Alexandria, Culpeper and Quantico in Virginia, as well as Baltimore in Maryland, will start at 9 a.m. on September 11.

NCA also invites family, friends and loved ones on this day to visit its Veterans Legacy Memorial. On a Veteran’s VLM page, you can post photos, tributes, a military timeline, achievements, biographical information, historical documents and more. This digital platform includes 4.8 million Veterans interred at VA national cemeteries or in VA grant-funded state, territorial or Tribal Veteran cemeteries, and two U.S. National Park Service cemeteries.

Over 70,000 submissions have been made to existing profiles since the site was launched.

This post was updated on 8/29.

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