9/11 Message With Pete Davidson Sounds the Call for Unity

The SNL legend lost his dad, an NYC firefighter, that day

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days in U.S. history, 9/11 Day is sending out a call for unity. 

The nonprofit has launched “UNIITE for Good,” an integrated campaign that asks individuals to pledge good deeds for this year’s day of remembrance and support those who suffer from food inaccessibility. (Note the two “IIs” in UNIITE.)

9/11 Day partnered with David&Goliath on the effort, which spans the good pledge, Meal Pack events nationwide and the film below.

“After 9/11, we learned that whatever differences we may have—political, cultural, racial, religious or otherwise—really are small compared with everything we share,” says David Paine, 9/11 Day’s cofounder and president. “We shouldn’t need another tragedy to remember that. So on this 25th anniversary, we’re asking people not simply to look back and remember how united America was after 9/11. We’re asking people to demonstrate that we’re still capable of that kind of unity today.”

Pete Davidson headlines the film. His father, Scott Davidson, was an NYC firefighter who lost his life while guiding people to safety at the World Trade Center. At the time, Pete was just 7 years old.

The short is grounded in simplicity. Davidson makes his way onto the set and explains what 9/11 Day wants to achieve—noting that his dad would have approved.

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The double I’s hold different meanings, representing the towers that fell on the day of the terrorist acts.

“But they also represent individuals coming together, person to person,” explains David Angelo, founder and creative chairman at David&Goliath. “Throughout the campaign, they transform into symbols of service and connection: two volunteers standing together, work gloves, grocery bags, paint cans and other everyday representations of people helping people.”

“The film really grew out of the idea that maybe the most powerful way to honor those we lost is to bring that spirit back—the spirit of showing up for one another and remembering the good that connects all of us,” he says.

While the immediate effort seeks to inspire 1 million good deeds, the larger goal is generational.

Paine emphasizes that one of the main drivers of the overall campaign is to reach the younger generations who may only have a cursory understanding of the terrible events that struck the nation. “We now have roughly 100 million Americans under the age of 25 who have no personal memory of 9/11—that was very much on our minds as we developed this campaign.”

He is adamant that young people don’t need to inherit the trauma of 9/11, but rather “inherit the lesson of what happened afterward—the courage, compassion, service and extraordinary unity that emerged from one of the worst days in our history.” 

“UNIITE for Good” sets out to establish the idea for future generations that one of the ways to remember 9/11 is by doing something good for someone else. 

“Then we’ve created something that can endure long after those of us who personally remember that day are gone.”

The organization has set up its site for anyone to visit and simply sign up for a good deed. Paine says people are committing to things like helping a neighbor, donating blood, thanking a first responder, checking in on somebody who’s lonely, supporting a food bank, mentoring a young person, or volunteering at an animal shelter. 

He adds: “One individual act may seem modest. But when a million people do something good at roughly the same time, collectively that becomes something very powerful.”

The Meal Pack events resonate with this ideal. Tens of thousands of volunteers are gathering in communities across the country to pack millions of meals for people facing hunger.

The campaign will run through Sept. 11, including the national moment of silence at 9:11 that morning.

“We’re not defining heroism as some enormous act,” says Angelo. “We’re saying that every person has the ability to make someone else’s day a little better. That’s the spirit we saw in the days following the attacks in 2001, and it’s the same spirit we’re trying to embrace with this movement.”