As Labor Day passes, you can feel “it” coming; a shroud of sadness enveloping us like the dust from the crumbling towers on 9/11.

This year the tenth anniversary will be marked across the country with ceremonies, services and vigils. For those in our area who lost loved ones, a private family luncheon will be held in New York City, an annual event hosted by Tuesday’s Children, a non-profit family service organization offering coping and life management skills and special programs to those most affected by the events of 9/11.

Terry Sears, executive director of the Manhasset-based organization, began as a volunteer with Tuesday’s Children in March 2002. As a Manhasset resident, she knew many people personally affected by the tragedy, including 38 families from Manhasset who were impacted by the loss of a relative. Terry, the mother of four, remembers that in every one of her children’s classes there was a child who’d lost a family member on 9/11.

Losing someone to an act of terrorism can be overwhelming to the survivors because it’s a tragedy that is continually talked about and debated in public and in the media. Some say reliving 9/11 is like going to a funeral over and over again.

Tuesday’s Children promotes healing and recovery to the victims of 9/11 through a variety of unique services and programs provided by community partners, donors, volunteers and an experienced and professional staff. They offer career-planning workshops, mentoring, resume preparation, and one-on-one education and career guidance for both students and adults. For those who lost a spouse, Tuesday’s Children helps the surviving spouse to re-enter the workforce or teaches them how to manage day-to-day living. Terry says that the organization tries to adapt to the individual’s situation. “If you lost a family member, we ask what are the deficits and how can we fill them.”

Ten years later, families continue to register with Tuesday’s Children. “About 75 percent of the children affected [by 9/11] are registered with us,” Terry says. “Sometimes the children were one or two years old [when 9/11 occurred] and now they are interested in meeting others.”

Tuesday’s Children helps families prepare for every 9/11 anniversary but their services are available all year round. When Navy Seals recently killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, Terry said that people turned to Tuesday’s Children for guidance, asking, “‘How do I talk to my children about it?’, or ‘how am I supposed to react?’” Helping the victims work through their emotions is an important part of the group’s mission.

Many of the children of 9/11 victims have gone on to graduate from college and begin their careers, so Terry’s vision for the future of Tuesday’s Children is that it becomes known as an organization helping families and children impacted by acts of terrorism around the world.

Four years ago, Tuesday’s Children launched Project Common Bond, an international program that was created from a request by the 9/11 teenagers who wanted an opportunity to “give back” on a larger scale. With the curriculum for the program designed by Harvard Law School’s Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, Project Common Bond’s mission is to teach peace-building, mediation and conflict-resolution skills to young people who have suffered a loss as a result of terrorism. “Common Bond provides them with the opportunity to take their personal tragedy and—with professional guidance from health experts and professionals in conflict resolution—turn their tragedy into strength,” Terry says. This year’s program hosted 77 children from 10 countries, including Northern Ireland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Israel and Palestinian territories, with about half of the participants from 9/11.

In other programs overseen by Tuesday’s Children, teen volunteers have helped in post-Katrina rebuilding efforts and performed community service in Costa Rica and other developing countries. Terry says, “These positive stories are so important.”

After the recent massacre in Norway when more than 90 people, many of them children, were killed by a lone terrorist, Terry was interviewed by the Norwegian media and she contacted the Norwegian Embassy to offer her assistance. Terry is preparing a white paper based upon her experience with Tuesday’s Children to assist other countries in responding to crises when they occur.

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 passes, Terry will be traveling to Paris to attend an international conference on terrorism while her staff will be busy seeing to the increasing needs of 9/11 first responders and their families as the effects of the tragedy continue to take a toll on their health and well-being.

9/11 will long be remembered as the most heinous terrorist act in U.S. history. Our hope is the victims of the tragedy will use the lessons they’ve learned from Tuesday’s Children to bring peace throughout the world.

“This is an organization that no one ever wanted to belong to,” Terry says. “We bring people together and [try to] take their loss and do something positive.”

For more information, go to www.tuesdayschildren.org, call 516-562-9000 or email terry@tuesdayschildren.org