Mahopac Man Turned Grief of Losing His Brother into Service to Others

On Sept. 11, 2001, when Jay Winuk heard that an airplane had crashed into each tower of the World Trade Center, he knew instinctively that his younger brother, Glenn, had rushed to the site to help.

Glenn, 40, a partner in the law firm Holland & Knight located on lower Broadway in Manhattan, a short walk from the Twin Towers, was a 20-year volunteer firefighter and EMT for the Jericho Fire Department, where they were raised on Long Island. He was also certified in building collapse and rescue training.

Despite having moved to Manhattan, Glenn continued to go back home to volunteer on weekends.

But on September 11, he borrowed a first responder’s medic bag and raced to the lobby of the South Tower.

Glenn Winuk’s partial remains were discovered six months later along with a stethoscope, gloves on his hands and the medic bag at his side.

“In all likelihood, he had been working triage in what had been the lobby area at the South Tower,” Jay Winuk said. “He was heroic and he was a great guy. He was always giving, whether it was in his role as a firefighter and EMT, or as a lawyer, always at the ready to help friends and family with his legal expertise and mentoring younger lawyers.”

In honor of his brother’s service and sacrifice, Jay Winuk, a longtime Mahopac resident, co-founded the nonprofit organization that is now called 9/11 Day with fellow public relations professional David Payne in 2002. He was one of the many family members of September 11 victims from across the nation that called on Congress to establish Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance. That recognition started in 2009.

Every Sept. 11 since 2016, the organization has held a meal pack as part of the day’s mission. It also coincides with Hunger Action Month.

Winuk said since the effort started in Manhattan eight years ago, it has grown this year to 21 cities across the U.S. There will be about 8.5 million meals packed, by more than 30,000 volunteers. In New York alone, there will be 400 to 600 volunteers during every two-hour shift for the two-day effort on Wednesday and Thursday.

The meals that are packed will go toward food banks affiliated with Feeding America in each city that is hosting the meal pack.

“It’s very gratifying to be engaged in an initiative that honors my brother and all the first responders and all of the victims and others in this way,” said Winuk, who has become a leading advocate for volunteer service. “I feel like it is the best thing I can do for him. And to see how the nation has responded; I mean, 30 million people a year make the day now, busy doing some form of good deeds, and it’s by far the most the most successful day of volunteer engagement in the history of the country.”

In addition to the meal pack, 9/11 Day engages in other initiatives, including lesson plans that bring age-appropriate material and discussion to children to help them learn about the terrorist attacks.

He’s also pleased that Sept. 11 has not been turned into a national holiday, and with it excuses for three-day weekends, barbecues and store sales instead of an understating of what the day should be about.

The day and efforts of all volunteers should also recapture the spirit of unity and community in the U.S. in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, he said.

“There’s about 100 million people in the United States who are not old enough to have had direct memories of 9/11,” Winuk said. A hundred million people. So much of what we do with the education program and these meal packs and PSA campaigns and everything else, is to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to create an initiative in this country that can be handed off from generation to generation.”

To learn more about 9/11Day and the work that it does, including the meal pack, visit www.911day.org.