On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life, in conjunction with Hillel at Binghamton University, held the 10th-annual Mitzvah Marathon Fair in remembrance of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The marathon gave students and the campus community the opportunity to do a mitzvah, a good deed or pledge, in honor of a victim of the attacks.

Students were asked to fill out a card pledging to do their good deed in honor of a 9/11 victim. The cards were hung up on the “wall of good deeds” along the Lois B. DeFleur Walkway near the New University Union.

Participants could do a good deed on campus by donating a dollar or a can of food to the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse, making a sandwich for the Salvation Army or donating blood to the American Red Cross.

The event began at Binghamton as a way to mark the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002. Dozens of campuses across the country, such as Rutgers University, University of Florida and Arizona State University, have since replicated the “Mitzvah Marathon”, according to Rabbi Levi Slonim of Chabad.

Samantha Greenstein, Chabad student president and a senior double-majoring in history and Judaic studies, said the Mitzvah Marathon is the only event on BU’s campus to commemorate 9/11 besides the College Republican’s flag planting and reading of names of the victims.

“Doing good deeds prevents the loss of memories of the victims,” Greenstein wrote in an email.

Slonim said the event is a way for people to remember the victims in a tangible and meaningful way.

“The main message and goal is we’re trying to, as just regular people, citizens, in this country, make it our responsibility as individuals to take this day of darkness and take the feelings that this day brings with it and channel it to bring more light into this world,” Slonim said. “A little light dispels much darkness, that is really the theme of this marathon.”

Andrew Topal, president of Hillel and a junior double-majoring in economics and political science, said Hillel and Chabad come together every year to provide students the opportunity to do as many good deeds as possible.

“The best way to memorialize the worst day in the nation’s history is to come together, as a community, and do as much good as possible to lessen the awfulness of the day,” Topal wrote in an email.

Greenstein said she believed the event went extremely well.

“I am so impressed by the dedication of all the volunteers and the enthusiasm on behalf of the student body towards giving blood, making sandwiches, and various donations which is what really makes the good deed marathon so successful,” Greenstein said.

Topal also said he believed the event was a success.

“It showed off the hard work of so many students and demonstrated the willingness of the Binghamton community to come together as one to memorialize those lost and remind students that helping others is important, even as we are all crunched for time,” Topal said.

Slonim said they estimate that close to 1,300 good deeds were performed or were pledged to be performed throughout the day.