Community honors 9/11 victims with acts of kindness

One by one, they approached the wooden towers.

Jotting down a good deed they had done — or would soon do — students and residents placed small squares of paper between the 3-foot-tall replicas of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

Smile at a stranger, one person wrote. Tell someone they’re beautiful. Call grandma.

By mid-afternoon on Turlington Plaza, about 100 acts of kindness decorated the space between the towers, symbols of hope nearly 15 years after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center held the memorial event Friday. It served as a way for community members to remember the nearly 3,000 people who died Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor their lives through random acts of kindness.

“It’s up to us to keep their memory alive,” said Rabbi Aaron Notik of Lubavitch-Chabad.

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Charlie Anderson listed his four years serving in the U.S. Air Force as his good deed.

Working as a heavy-equipment operator in the military about three decades ago, the Gainesville resident said his job was to help rebuild bases after attacks.

But even 15 years after the deadliest terrorist attack in history, the U.S. and its people have yet to fully rebuild, he said.

But through small acts of compassion, like those pinned on Turlington Plaza, he said the nation would eventually heal.

“If we put our hearts together and come together as a country, we can be great again,” he said. “Without that, we don’t have anything. We don’t have freedom.”

Mariam Hussein, a UF biology sophomore from Somalia, said she would donate to a nonprofit that specializes in child care.

She said the ripples of 9/11 are felt even today. After the attacks, grief was tinged with anger and counterintuitive foreign policy, she said.

Although understandable, Hussein said the country’s mindset has changed for the better since the attacks. Friday’s event was proof of progress.

“I think it’s awesome,” the 19-year-old said. “We have to move on.”

Some good deeds passed through the hands of Jacob Zieper, 21, who spent the afternoon encouraging passing students to fill the plastic-foam board.

He said it was humbling and gratifying that students would take time out of their day to act selflessly.

“The only way you can fight senseless hate is with random love,” the UF jewish studies senior said.

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