This September marked 25 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001. In the years since, the day has become something more than a memorial.

In 2009, Congress designated September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance, and every year millions of Americans mark it by volunteering in their own communities.

The idea behind 9/11 Day is that the best way to honor the people who were lost, and the people who ran toward danger to help, is to do something useful for someone else. For one pest control company, that idea fits the business almost exactly.

A National Sponsor With a Local Footprint

EcoShield Pest Solutions is a national sponsor of 9/11 Day, and its branches across the country volunteer in their own communities as part of that commitment. The company describes its goal simply as honoring the National Day of Service “with action.”

With more than 55 locations, a sponsorship like this does not happen in one place. It happens in dozens of towns and cities at once, organized by the local teams who live and work there.

Service With Trucks and Labor

What makes this kind of community work distinctive is the kind of help a company like this can offer. EcoShield’s entire business is about sending trained people with equipment to physical locations to solve physical problems. When its teams volunteer, they tend to do the same thing.

Two recent projects show what that looks like.

• Clearing a playground in Texas. In Austin and San Antonio, EcoShield teams partnered with Action Behavior Center to remove poison ivy from a playground used by children with autism. For kids who may have sensory sensitivities or difficulty communicating discomfort, a rash from poison ivy is more than a minor annoyance. Clearing the outdoor space gave the children a safer place to play and gave the staff one less thing to worry about.
• Building a court for veterans near Philadelphia. At the Coatesville Veterans Association in Pennsylvania, EcoShield installed a volleyball court at the association’s facility. It is a practical, lasting addition, the kind of improvement that gives members a reason to gather and stay active long after the volunteers go home.
• Cleaning up a community park in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee team spent Shield Day cleaning up a local park in the community where they live, work, and serve. The project gave the team a chance to work side by side outside of their everyday roles while helping care for a space their neighbors can enjoy. As Sam Ruiz shared, it was a reminder that being part of EcoShield is also about “being a good neighbor, investing in our communities, and leaving things a little better than we found them.”
• Supporting recovery programs in Denver. Steve Carr and the Denver team spent Shield Day supporting New Hope Sober Living and a local horse therapy ranch serving women in recovery. The team provided pest control services at five homes and the ranch, while also pitching in with chores and other projects around the properties. Their work helped support organizations focused on providing safe, supportive environments for people working toward a new chapter in their lives.

This year’s Shield Day reached communities in many different ways. Food and hunger relief led the way with 16 projects, followed closely by 15 parks, environmental, and community beautification projects. Teams also supported veterans and first responders, animal welfare, schools and youth, blood drives, recovery programs, and other community organizations, showing just how many different ways our teams came together to give back.

These projects called for people who know how to work outdoors, show up with the right tools and finish the job. That is the skill set a field service company has in abundance.

Why Hands-On Service Matters

Financial donations are essential to nonprofits, and plenty of organizations depend on them. But many community groups also have projects that sit undone because they lack the labor, equipment or expertise to tackle them.

A playground that needs clearing, a facility that needs building or repairs, a yard that needs work before winter: these are the jobs that often wait the longest.

Companies with skilled field teams can close that gap in a way few others can. A pest control technician who spends the week inspecting yards, identifying plants and working around structures brings real skills to a volunteer day. So does an HVAC installer, an electrician or a landscaper.

For the organizations on the receiving end, that kind of help often goes further than a donation of the same value, because it delivers a finished result.

Part of a Larger Pattern

EcoShield’s 9/11 Day sponsorship sits alongside other long-running commitments, including its annual Exterminate Hunger food drive, in which technicians collect nonperishable donations from customers’ doorsteps during service visits and deliver them to local food pantries. The 2026 drive runs from October 1 through November 19.

The common thread is a business model built on showing up. The same routes, trucks and people that serve customers during the week become the infrastructure for giving back.

How Other Companies Can Take Part

9/11 Day is open to anyone. Organizations of any size can find volunteer opportunities and resources through 911day.org and through AmeriCorps.

For businesses with field teams, the most valuable question to ask a local partner is often a simple one: what project have you been putting off because you did not have the hands to do it?

The answer might be a playground, a volleyball court, or something no one has thought to ask about yet. Whatever it is, the 25th anniversary is a fitting time to start.