“We all had different uniforms but only one mission: to find people so that we could bring them back to their families,” said founder of HEART 9/11 Bill Keegan.
Twenty-five years ago, Keegan was among the thousands of first responders who answered the call following the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history. On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed, including hundreds of firefighters and law enforcement officers.
Keegan, a decorated lieutenant in the Special Operations Division (SOD) and a 20-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department in New York City, began that morning far from the chaos that would soon consume lower Manhattan. After working an overnight shift, Keegan accompanied his wife and daughter to a doctor’s appointment. Within hours, he was packing a bag and racing north on an eerily empty New Jersey Turnpike toward New York City.
Roughly 10,000 first responders answered the call and rushed to the World Trade Center that September morning. Like Keegan, many of them were off duty, but immediately jumped into action to help others.
“There are little pieces of paper flying around in the air,” he recalled. “All of a sudden, on this side of the tunnel, it was darker. There was no sunlight. It was being blocked by the smoke.”
As he arrived at the site, Keegan searched for anyone with orders or answers. He was told as many as 70 Port Authority police officers were missing and presumed dead. When he asked who, names were recited, many of them people Keegan had known and worked alongside for years. The magnitude of what had happened began to set in.
Ultimately, 37 Port Authority police officers and 38 civilian employees lost their lives on September 11.
The next day, Keegan served as the Night Operations Commander of the World Trade Center Rescue/Recovery Teams, where he supervised hundreds of responders. For nine months, six nights a week, Keegan worked from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. as part of a rescue operation that continued around the clock.
“We had one mission: give answers to those families that lost somebody. They went out to work on a Tuesday morning and they never came home. We’ve got to give them answers, and we’ve got to make this country stronger because of this.”
That experience and the relationships forged through it would eventually become the foundation for Keegan’s next mission.
Americans Helping Americans
“I had this extraordinary idea of having a disaster team that would travel around this country, helping other first responders and people and families,” he said.
Keegan knew exactly where to find the people capable of making that vision a reality: the first responders and skilled tradesmen he had worked alongside in the aftermath of September 11.
“I started calling my friends from the NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority Police Department and Special Operations. And I was so surprised. They said, ‘We love it.’”
In 2007, Keegan founded HEART 9/11 a nonprofit disaster response organization made up of police, fire, construction workers and 9/11 surviving families that bonded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Its mission is not simply to remember what happened that day, but to put the spirit that followed it into action.
The organization’s first major deployment sent 50 people to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where they helped rebuild homes in the Ninth Ward. In 2010, the crew traveled to Haiti following the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.
Since then, the organization has carried out 379 deployments, including responses to 57 disasters across the United States and abroad.
For Keegan, the purpose is clear.
“Why we do what we do is to try to give people that are going through hell a little sense that people care, and people are here to help them.”
After September 11, people from across America and around the world showed up for New York. Through HEART 9/11, Keegan and his volunteers have spent nearly two decades returning that generosity to communities experiencing their own darkest days.
Helping Others, Healing Ourselves
“When you do something for somebody else, not with any expectations of getting anything back, it fills your soul with grace. It makes you stronger against whatever is going to come at you,” said Keegan. “And the more you build grace, the stronger you are. I think that what we discovered was the things that kept us going and why we did what we did … make you healthy, having a purpose in life.”
That sense of purpose has translated into a lasting impact on the 1,982 law enforcement officers spanning 128 police departments who have been trained in stress management, carrying forward Keegan’s belief in service, purpose and the importance of building resilience.
Keegan later connected with American cardiologist, medical academic and pioneer in mind-body medicine, Dr. Herbert Benson, from Harvard Medical School. Their work reinforced something Keegan says HEART 9/11 volunteers had discovered through experience: purpose, camaraderie and social connection can be important components of resilience.
Those principles remain central to HEART 9/11.
Among the many things HEART 9/11 does is their Center for Strength + Resiliency. It translates lessons learned from tragedies such as 9/11 or the Sandy Hook shooting into evidence-informed resilience and stress-management training that organizations can deliver to their employees. These programs support first responders and non-uniformed personnel (nurses, teachers, administrative staff). So far, the center has served over 1,872 individuals across six states.
Reliable Aid
When disaster strikes, goodwill alone is not enough. Communities need skilled people who can arrive quickly, identify what needs to be done and finish the job. HEART 9/11’s model pairs philanthropic support with a network of experienced tradespeople and first responders ready to deploy.
For donors, that model means their support can help put skilled volunteers, tools and building materials directly into communities in need. That model also makes it possible to build dependable homes at a reasonable cost. To date, HEART 9/11 has helped rebuild or modify 951 homes, providing lasting support to families recovering from disaster
“We could rebuild a home, labor, plane ride, everything for $5,000 and it’s the best roof in Puerto Rico. They know we don’t build any other way. We have professionals that build to be sustainable,” Keegan said.
By providing lasting solutions, HEART 9/11 enables communities to rebuild stronger, build local capacity and become more resilient to future crises.
Effective disaster relief takes more than a willingness to respond. It requires readiness, professional expertise, accountability and the commitment to remain until the work is done. For Keegan, the standard is the same one he learned at Ground Zero.
“We have the number 9/11 in our name, and we all know how proud we were of the work we did there [New York City], and I don’t do it any differently anywhere else,” he said.
More than a Memory
In 2026, nearly an entire generation has grown without a personal memory of, or connection to, the devastation our country experienced in 2001.
“Almost half of my members were not on the job on 9/11. They’re younger people that came on and heard about what we do, and they want to be part of it,” Keegan said.
HEART 9/11 is not intended merely to serve as a reminder of what was lost. It is a living testament to what came afterward: selflessness, resilience and the extraordinary things people can accomplish when they unite around a common purpose.
“We don’t dwell on that day,” Keegan added. “We’re dwelling on the future. How do we help people in the future when bad things happen?”
Keegan has long been inspired by the power of unity and what people can achieve when working together. A generation knows September 11 only though photographs, videos and the stories of those who were there. Perhaps that is what “never forget” can mean 25 years later: not only remembering how Americans responded but choosing to respond the same when others need help.
For more information about HEART 9/11, please contact Senior Director of American Values & Policy Philanthropy Clarice Smith.
