From Remembrance to Action: EcoShield New York City Honors September 11 Through Service

New York City, NY — Each year on September 11, EcoShield Pest Solutions comes together for its annual Service Day, creating an opportunity for employees across the country to honor a defining moment in American history through acts of service and giving back to the communities they call home.

While each EcoShield branch finds its own meaningful way to serve, this year’s Service Day held a particularly personal significance for the company’s New York City team.

For Bill Bjelke, General Manager of EcoShield’s New York City branch and a lifelong Long Island resident, September 11, 2001, is more than a date in history. It is a memory of a city changed forever and of the people who came together in the aftermath to help one another.

At the time of the attacks, Bill was General Manager of Culligan Water Company. In the hours that followed, the company was called upon to deliver truckloads of fresh, bottled and distilled water to Ground Zero. Their caravan, escorted by local police departments, traveled through nearly empty streets into Manhattan and ultimately to the edge of the rubble.

“It was like an apocalypse movie. We did not see a soul walking on the streets, and it was almost dead silent,” Bill recalled.

When Bill and his team arrived, they helped wash thick gray dust from the sidewalks and established tents stocked with distilled water. There, NYPD officers, FDNY firefighters and volunteers emerging from the rubble could flush the dust from their eyes, noses and mouths.

“None of them spoke to us. We understood their silence and blank stares,” Bill said.

Bill and his team remained at Ground Zero until approximately 4 a.m. on September 12, supporting those who were working through the night in the search for survivors.

Some later referred to Bill and his colleagues as first responders, but Bill is quick to distinguish their role from those who faced the greatest danger.

“Some people called us ‘first responders,’ but I was nothing compared to the actual first responders who sacrificed their lives that day, and every day for the past 25 years,” Bill said. “My brief eight-hour visit to Ground Zero was the most surreal experience in my entire life. It changed me.”

Twenty-five years later, those memories continue to shape what September 11 means to Bill and the New York City team.

For EcoShield’s 2026 Service Day, the branch chose to raise funds for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, an organization whose work is closely connected to the legacy of September 11 and the sacrifices made by first responders and military service members.

In just two hours, the New York City team raised $516 for the foundation.

For Bill, the reason for supporting an organization that gives back to those who have given so much is simple.

“These are our neighbors and community,” he said.

EcoShield’s annual Service Day is a reminder that remembrance can take many forms. Through fundraising, volunteering and acts of service, EcoShield teams across the country come together each year to honor those whose lives were lost or forever changed on September 11, while recognizing the extraordinary courage, compassion and sacrifice demonstrated in the days and years that followed.

Twenty-five years later, EcoShield remembers by serving.