Bearing rakes, pressure hoses and brushes, about 50 volunteers converged on Portland’s Willamette National Cemetery under a cloudy sky on Thursday.

They came on the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks to beautify the grounds where more than 180,000 servicemembers are interred .

The effort — organized by Carry the Load, a nonprofit veterans and first-responder support group — isn’t limited to the Portland area. Thousands of volunteers are expected to attend similar events at almost 70 national cemeteries across the country.

Carry the Load said in a statement that the organization has been organizing cemetery cleanups on 9/11 since 2019, as a remembrance for the first responders who died in the 2001 terror attacks, as well as for the armed servicemembers who died in

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