Casualties of the September 11 attacks
2,974 victims were confirmed to have died in the initial attacks; this includes Sneha Anne Philip, a doctor, who in 2008 was ruled to have died on 9/11. In 2007, the New York City medical examiner's office began to add people who died of illnesses caused by exposure to dust from the site to the official death toll. The first such victim was a woman, a civil rights lawyer, who had died from a chronic lung condition in February 2002. In September 2009, the office added a man who died in October 2008, and in 2011, a male accountant who had died in December 2010. This raises the number of victims at the World Trade Center site to 2,753, and the overall 9/11 death toll to 2,996.
September 11 National Day of Service
According to the nonprofit MyGoodDeed, which founded the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance ("9/11 Day") in 2002, the goal of "9/11 Day" is "to keep alive the spirit of unity and compassion that arose in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks in tribute to the individuals lost and injured in the attacks, and the many who rose in service in response." The idea of making September 11 an annual day of service was first conceived in the winter of 2001 by David Paine, a former marketing executive from New York City. In the Spring of 2002 David was joined by his friend Jay Winuk, who had lost his brother Glenn Winuk in the attacks at the World Trade Center, and together they formed the nonprofit group called One Day's Pay. In 2007, the name of the organization was officially changed to MyGoodDeed. In 2009, MyGoodDeed successfully led an effort to designate September 11 under federal law as a National Day of Service and Remembrance, which occurred as part of passage of the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act by the United States Congress, and later, by an amendment to the Patriot Day Presidential Proclamation by President Barack Obama, which formally recognized and established September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act authorized the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency, to assist the 9/11 community in building awareness of and support for "9/11 Day" through its national service programs. In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, MyGoodDeed, CNCS and the Points of Light Institute/HandsOn Network joined together to organize the largest day of charitable service in U.S. history, with more than 32 million Americans participating, according to research conducted by Horizon Consumer Science on behalf of MyGoodDeed. Today, 9/11 Day continues to engage nearly 30 million Americans annually in various forms of charitable service, including volunteering, donations to charities, and simple good deeds.