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August 31, 2025 16 mins
Original Air Date: August 31, 2025

After losing his brother, Glenn, as a voluntary responder on 9/11, Jay Winuk co-founded 9/11 Day, a day of service in honor of those we lost 24 years ago. It’s the largest day of service in the country!
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reintroduce you to an old friend of mine.
You know, in a better world, we would not probably
have known each other, but because of nine to eleven
we have become friends. And Jay Winnock is a co
founder of nine to eleven Day, the nine to eleven
Day of Service, which has become the biggest participatory day

(00:34):
of service in the United States. It's simply absolutely incredible
and it is coming up again the twenty four year mark.
Hard to believe since that tragedy on nine to eleven
when Jay unfortunately lost his brother. Now his brother was

(00:55):
actually not in the World Trade Center at that time.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
But he.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Was living nearby and he was a volunteer firefighter, and
so he immediately decided to do what he knew best,
which was to respond, and unfortunately he is one of
those we lost on nine to eleven. But out of

(01:25):
that tragedy came this tremendous organization. Jay, So tell us
about your brother and tell us about you know, the
nine to eleven Day of Service. This year because you'd
do such good work. And you know what, one of
the things I love about it is that it's it

(01:45):
gives something for everyone to do that day when you
feel absolutely helpless, like what do I do to commemorate this?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
What do I do in their memory? In their honor?
What do I do? And this is something to do?

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well. Thank you for that, Shelley.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
Yeah, you know that combination of remembrance and service, that
combination that's really the secret, Sauce I think to why
this initiative not only continues to grow.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
But gives people.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
As individuals, as organizations, companies, entities, other nonprofits, first respond
to organizations, faith based groups, you name it, educational institutions.
It gives them an opportunity to do something active, to
take action, to do something meaningful and impactful as a
way to remember. And that continues to attract more and

(02:45):
more people, not only in New York, but in all
fifty states or aut the nation. Each nine to eleven,
people really do want to do something that's meaningful and
appropriate on nine to eleven. And we're just so gratified
that the momentum continues here after year. And yeah, as
to Glenn, thank you for your kind words about his

(03:05):
actions that day. My brother Glenn when it was a
volunteer firefighter and an EMT in our hometown of Jericho
for twenty years, specially trained in building collaps rescue. And yes,
he did live and work in Manhattan. He was in
his apartment in Midtown when the first plane hit. He

(03:27):
raced downtown to his law offices at Holland to Night
where he was a partner, and then helped evacuate those
law offices and headed on foot into the South Tower
to save lives.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Tell us more about him.

Speaker 6 (03:43):
I don't want people to lose, you know, I don't
want people to see those we lost as in number,
but rather as you know, in the individuals they were,
whether they were helping or whether they were trapped.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Yeah, he was a remarkable person in so many ways.
He was my younger brother by three years, always enamored
with first response. I mean from the time we were
a little kid sharing a bedroom in Jericho. You know,
he was the kid chasing fire trucks on his bike.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
He was.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
He joined the fire department as soon as he could.
Even when he became a successful attorney, he was.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Still in Manhattan.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
He was still going back on weekends to Jericho to fires.
Some of his best friends were firefighters, either those who
were part of the FDNY or those who were still
volunteer firefighters in our hometown. He really went out of
his way for people, and not only as a firefighter,

(04:46):
I mean as an attorney and as a good friend.
He was just a very giving, caring person. And it
was no surprise to any of us who knew Glenn
that if he was within proximity, and I knew he
was because of where his law office was, and I
had spoken with him the night before on the tenth,
so I knew he was in town. There was no

(05:08):
surprise to any of us that he would run and
as he did in ninety three when the trade center
was bombed, respond But of course that day he came home.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Wow, So what was your conversation The night before we.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
Were actually talking about I had paid my respects to
the father of mutual friends who had passed away, and
I had gone to the house where they were morning,
and Glenn was planning to go. So I had gone
on the tenth in New Jersey, and Glenn was planning
to go on the eleventh to pay his respects to

(05:45):
this gentleman who had been a firefighter before Glenn Wow,
we knew from Jericho, and so he was asking me
how the day went on the tenth and who was there,
and you know what the directions were, and all of
that of the tenth when I spoke with him, and
he did not arrive, But true to Glenn's nature, the

(06:06):
flowers that he had arranged in advance to arrive on
the eleventh arrived on the eleventh.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
But of course Glenn did not.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Tell me about the last time you saw Glenn.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
You know, I think the last time I saw him
was he and I attended a concert at Madison Square,
Gordon to see and in fact next week I'm going again,
in part in Glenn's honor, but also because I love
the who. But I think that was the last time
he and I went out and did something fun together there.

(06:41):
It may have been a time or two after, you know,
just for family gathering or something getting together at my
house or otherwise, but I do think that's the last
time he and I went out and had some fun
as brothers.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
And of course to who they were one of the
performers at the concert for Heroes, Yes, indeed, yes, sort
of came full circle for you. Were you there?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
No?

Speaker 5 (07:04):
I was not.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
No, I wasn't, But yeah, what a remarkable event that was, though.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Right exactly exactly? So, how when did you first find
out what happened to Glenn? How long did you have
to wait to hear any news?

Speaker 5 (07:23):
It took a while to put the pieces together, you know,
within twenty four to forty eight hours, you know, his
whole firm holl in the night. They ran for their
lives as well they should have. Again, their offices were
at one ninety five Broadways, so just a couple of
blocks from the Trade Center, so they were in complete disarray.
And while I knew the names of some of his

(07:46):
fellow employees and law partners, I didn't know them personally
at all. But we did receive a phone call around
the managing director of the whole national law firm, and
then a subsequent call from the from the general manager
of the New York office, uh and, and they told
me what they could, and in fact, they were aware

(08:08):
that Glenn had headed on foot towards the South Tower.
But of course we didn't know if he was dead
or alive, Like all of the families, you know, just
kind of hoping for some kind of miracle. But you know,
the hours went on and then the days went on,
and you're hoping that you know, maybe he's trapped with
others underground, or maybe you know, he was hit on

(08:29):
the head and roaming the streets, or is in some
hospital but not yet identified, whatever it may be. But
the you know, the hope with each passing day dwindled
and dwindled, and we eventually, of course, gave up hope
with with everybody else, once the situation was declared, uh,
no longer a rescue operation, but just recovery. And so

(08:50):
that was you know, by early October, I guess, and
then we held memorial service for him.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
And when did you did some of his remains were recovered.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Yeah, in late March two thousand and two, Glenn's partial
remains were found alongside those of many other first responders
once they cleared that kind of temporary ramp going down
to the pit down there, you know, where they were
removing debris. Once they cleared that in favor of a

(09:24):
more permanent ramp, they did find a number of first
responders and the best that the authorities could tell, Glenn
was found in what had been the lobby area of
the South Tower, you know, working Triosh. You know, he
had surgical gloves on his hands and histhsiscope by his

(09:44):
side and a first responder kit next to his remains
as well. And there was no question that Glenn ran
in there, of course, to save lives again as a
person with twenty years of experience, but boy, what a
disaster scene that was. I don't know that anybody could

(10:05):
have been prepared for that, but Glenn was as prepared
as anybody. I can tell you that, highly trained and
certainly courageous.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I'm speaking with Jay Wennicky lost his brother Glenn on
nine to eleven. But then Jay and a friend did
an extraordinary thing with Jay's loss, which is forming well,
determining to do a nine to eleven day of service,

(10:35):
and nine to eleven day is on nine to eleven,
tell us what's happening here in New York City that
people may be able to participate in, or some small
acts of kindness that they can do individually wherever you are.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
Soon after nine to eleven happened, my friend and colleague
David Payne called me from California with the idea of
trying to start a grass roots movement where people did
good deeds on nine to eleven as a way to remember,
and that was reflecting the way people came together in
this country immediately and for months afterwards with acts of

(11:15):
kindness and putting aside our differences and focusing, really focusing.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
On our common humanity.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
We were all Americans then, and it didn't matter those
things that typically separate us. It was a remarkable time
in this country. If you're old enough to remember that
part of it, you'll never forget that either. And so
together we wanted to create a ritual in this country
where people did us, that did simple acts of kindness

(11:44):
and good deeds each nine to eleven, either as individuals
or part of organized activities. We have since, with the
help of so many including AmeriCorps and so many corporate sponsors,
faith based groups and municipalities and professional sports leagues and

(12:04):
so many others, built the anniversary of nine to eleven
into the nation's largest annual day of charitable engagement. And
it's one of only two days on the calendar that's
recognized as a day of service under federal law, along
with MLK Day each year. And about ten years ago
we started staging large scale meal packs and cities across

(12:25):
the country for people to participate in as one way
to give back on nine to eleven and so in
New York we do this every year aboard the Intrepid,
and in fact, in New York it's the only nine
to eleven day meal pack program where we do it
over the course of two days because the demand and
interest is so high. So, you know, upwards this September

(12:50):
tenth and eleventh, there'll be more than six thousand volunteers
packing millions, literally millions of meals just aboard the Intrepid,
a million meal each day. And we're doing this in
twenty four cities across the country this year, so it
just grows and grows. It's one example of the way
people give back.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
How else can people give back those who cannot You really,
there aren't enough spaces for people to sign up for
the Intrepid.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
And in fact, most of the volunteers intentionally are the
employees of the corporate sponsors we have, and there are
more than seven hundred of them across the country who
step forward to make these events happen by providing you know,
important funding for the meals and the venues and everything
else that goes into stage and these large scale meal packs.

(13:41):
And by the way, all the meals stay in those communities.
In those cities, they're donated to local Feeding America food
banks to leave it to the professionals, of course, to
distribute it to those who are in need and their
shelf stable non perishable meals. But we encourage people to
go to our website nine to eleven Day dot org
because there are so many, so much great information there

(14:03):
about the ways that people can participate in the September
eleventh National Day of Service and Rememberance. More than thirty
million people a year marked the day by doing good deeds,
so it's become quite a phenomenon.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's truly amazing. How does that make you feel?

Speaker 4 (14:22):
It makes you feel pretty good, you know.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
You know, I like to say that Glenn would have
been the first person in line to step forward for
such an initiative because it was his nature. So it's
the best thing that I can do in honor of Glenn.
But of course it extends far beyond that. You know.
It's it's our way and the nation's way of ensuring

(14:46):
the promise to never forget. It's not the only way
that people remember. It's not the only way that people
mark the day, and we don't we don't expect that
everybody has to do what they're comfortable with. But you know, Shelley,
it makes me feel great even if I can get
one person.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
To do good deeds in honor of those who.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
Are perished and those who are injured and those who
were sickened as a result of their service at Ground zero.
And it's the best thing I get to do, you know,
outside of things I get to do with family, of course,
but it's very rewarding and gratifying.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
And one more time, where can they go to get
some ideas and to sign up.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
Nine to eleven day dot org nine one day dot org.
There's so much good information there and you know, videos
and educational materials. We have a robust education program, and
of course education is so key. You know, there's been
a hundred million people born in this country since nine
to eleven. They have no direct memories, as do you
and I and so many of your listeners of the

(15:57):
way it was after nine to eleven, and so we
want it to create a ritual that can be handed
off from generation to generation. Indeed, we have, but the
education program and the lesson plans and so much other
information on.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
The website very very useful and user friendly.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Thank you so much, Jay, and again I'm sorry for
your loss, for all of our losses.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
You've been listening to Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
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