With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 come and gone, most middle school-aged youth have no personal recollection of the events of that terrible September morning. Yet, through exposure to the media in the coming weeks, many of these children will see images of and hear about the events of 9/11 and undoubtedly have difficult questions for parents and educators.
Thankfully, the legacy of Christina-Taylor Green -- who was the service-minded 9-year-old girl born on 9/11 and was killed in January 2011 at Congresswoman Gabby Giffords "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, Ariz. -- will help educators to empower youth to take positive action on 9/11 through The 9/12 Generation Project, which is a ten-year national service-learning initiative to teach students about 9/11 through the lessons of citizenship and service of 9/12.
The Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, which was established by her family to honor Christina-Taylor's life and memory, has made a generous donation to The 9/12 Generation Project that will make the Project's Service Activation Kit available for free to all the public middle schools in the five boroughs of New York City, to all the public middle schools in the state of Arizona, and to one other public middle school in each of the remaining 48 states.
The mission of The 9/12 Generation Project is to inspire and educate 1.5 million middle and high school students nationwide with the timeless and universal lessons of citizenship and service that emerged from 9/12 in order to activate students in curriculum based service-learning projects focused on disaster relief, community revitalization, and the arts.
At the core of The 9/12 Generation Project is a Service Activation Kit which contains the educational version of the "New York Says Thank You" documentary film, and Mentor and Youth Action Guides that contain (1) a "History of September 11th" resource guide, (2) a film discussion guide, and (3) a service-learning project guide that meets Common Core Curriculum Standards and empowers teachers to engage students in six unique volunteer projects focused on disaster relief, community revitalization, and the arts.
The "New York Says Thank You" film brings to life for young students the positive lessons of citizenship that emerged from the 9/11 tragedy and shows them -- from a child's perspective - how it is possible to transform tragedy into hope when communities come together -- whether in New York following 9/11 or Tucson following the shootings in January 2011.
Christina-Taylor was the embodiment of The 9/12 Generation Project as she was not only aware of 9/11, but she also made the conscious decision to be an engaged citizen and worked to make the world a better and more loving place through her devotion to community service, volunteerism, and student government because of the events of that day. For this reason, The 9/12 Generation Project and the educational version of the "New York Says Thank You" documentary film have been lovingly dedicated to Christina-Taylor's memory.
New York City or Arizona schools interested in obtaining their free copy of The 9/12 Generation Project Service Activation Kit thanks to the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, please visit our website at www.912GenerationProject.org.
The 9/12 Generation Project is a ten-year, national service-learning initiative of New York Says Thank You Foundation that is supported by KPMG LLP, KPMG Foundation, The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and The Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation.