O-High Foundation Launches Resilient Long Island for 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Day

25th-anniversary initiative spans five Long Island event hubs and connects youth service to advanced manufacturing and marine transportation career pathways.

LONG ISLAND, NY, UNITED STATES, September 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- O-High Foundation, Inc. is launching Resilient Long Island for 9/11 Day, a multi-week youth service and workforce-awareness initiative marking the 25th anniversary of September 11 by connecting remembrance, community readiness, civic responsibility, and career exposure across Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Funded by 9/11 Day / AmeriCorps, Resilient Long Island uses September 11 as the beginning — not the end — of a journey designed to move young people from remembrance to service, and from hands-on service to exposure to advanced manufacturing and marine transportation career pathways. The initiative is designed to reach 1,000 Long Island youth across Nassau and Suffolk Counties through service, community-readiness activities, and workforce and career exposure.

“Twenty-five years after September 11, remembrance asks something of us,” said Dr. Subrina D. Oliver, Founder, President and Institutional Chair of O-High Foundation, Inc. “Resilient Long Island gives young people a way to honor the past through service while helping them recognize that community resilience is built long before an emergency—in the people, industries, skills, and career pathways that keep Long Island working every day.”

Five Event Hubs: September Through October
• September 11 — Turtle Hook Middle School, Uniondale: Resilient Long Island begins with a 25th-Anniversary Kickoff Ceremony from 9:25–10:25 AM, inviting young people to consider what remembrance asks of their generation. Following the ceremony, eighth-grade students will be invited to begin hands-on service and community-readiness activities, transforming remembrance into action through the initiative's youth production and kit-building experience.

• September 11 — Fire Island Ferries, Bay Shore Marina: The anniversary continues at sunset with Sunset Passage — A Dockside Ceremony, from 6:00–7:30 PM, honoring Fire Island Ferries, the crews who answered a community in crisis, and the Voyager, Explorer, and Fireball for their service in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The tribute recognizes their place within Long Island's first-response story and the vital role that local people, vessels, skills, and transportation infrastructure can assume when ordinary operations suddenly become extraordinary service. Twenty-five years later, current Fire Island Ferries youth employees are anticipated to help assemble and present First-Responder Honor Packs, connecting one generation of Long Island's workforce in service to another.

• Week of September 18 — Longwood High School, Suffolk: Remembrance moves deeper into service as Longwood youth participate in hands-on kit preparation and community-readiness activities benefiting local households and first responders. The week's service will culminate in a September 18 recognition ceremony during Longwood High School's evening football game, bringing students, educators, families, community members, and invited first responders together to honor service while strengthening connections between young people and those who help keep their communities prepared and safe.

Supporting the Longwood activation, Top Gun Cigars in Wading River will host a Longwood-at-Large First Responder Honor Roll registration on September 11, inviting current and retired local first responders to stop in and register for the school district's September 18 service and recognition activities. Registered first responders will be invited to the September 18 ceremony, with O-High Foundation anticipating that up to 20 First-Responder Honor Packs will be reserved for early participating responders.

• October 20 — SUNY Suffolk Grant Campus / Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, Brentwood: September's hands-on service becomes a Suffolk Salute to Manufacturing, connecting what youth experienced through staging, assembly, quality review, packaging, and distribution to the technologies, training pathways, employers, and careers that make production possible at scale.

• October 26 — Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City: The journey continues with a Nassau Salute to Manufacturing, expanding youth exposure to Long Island's industries, technologies, and career pathways while bringing the initiative's service and workforce themes together through a ceremonial First-Responder Honor Pack presentation.

Service That Becomes a Workforce Bridge
Resilient Long Island turns community readiness into hands-on learning. Youth will help prepare five types of resources for Long Island communities: Disaster Readiness Kits, Senior Safety & Wellness Kits, Power & Connectivity Resilience Kits, Multilingual Readiness Card Sets, and First-Responder Honor Packs recognizing those whose service strengthens community resilience.

The service experience mirrors an age-appropriate production workflow—staging, sorting, assembly, quality review, inventory, packaging, and distribution. During Long Island Manufacturing Month, that experience becomes a workforce bridge as participating youth connect what they have done to the people, technologies, employers, training pathways, and careers that make production possible at scale. The journey continues through the October 20 Suffolk Salute to Manufacturing at SUNY Suffolk's Advanced Manufacturing Training Center and the October 26 Nassau Salute to Manufacturing at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, connecting September service directly to Long Island's manufacturing ecosystem and MFG Day career awareness.

Marine transportation extends the workforce story. Through Sunset Passage, Fire Island Ferries demonstrates how the same people, skills, vessels, and operational knowledge that keep a region moving every day can become critical community assets in extraordinary moments. As a local employer of young people, Fire Island Ferries also creates a living bridge between those who answered the call 25 years ago and the young people preparing to carry Long Island's workforce and communities forward.

A Call to Long Island's Workforce Community
O-High Foundation invites Long Island's manufacturing and MFG Day community, workforce-development boards, employers, marine transportation organizations, education and training providers, and other partners to help young people explore a central question:
Who makes—and who moves—the things that keep Long Island working?
Partners can contribute workforce and career intelligence, training-pathway information, employer connections, youth-facing resources, appropriate products and kit materials, sponsorship, in-kind support, and participation in the September and October activities.

About O-High Foundation, Inc.
O-High Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization creating bridges among education, community service, workforce development, technology, and career opportunity. Through partnerships with schools, employers, industry, workforce organizations, and community leaders, O-High creates hands-on experiences that help young people develop practical skills, serve their communities, and discover new career pathways.

About 9/11 Day / AmeriCorps Support
Resilient Long Island for 9/11 Day is funded by 9/11 Day / AmeriCorps and honors the 25th anniversary of September 11 through service, community preparedness, youth engagement, and workforce awareness.

Dr. Subrina D. Oliver
O-High Foundation, Inc.
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