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	Volunteers mark 9/11 anniversary with day of service at ReStore Photo by Graham Cullen Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School students, from left, Ben Greenberg, 12, Catherine Gerber, 13, and Audrey Hayn, 13, remove bricks from a section of a sidewalk Tuesday along North Market Street near 7th Street during a 9/11 day of service and remembrance. ">
	Photo by Graham Cullen Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School students, from left, Ben Greenberg, 12, Catherine Gerber, 13, and Audrey Hayn, 13, remove bricks from a section of a sidewalk Tuesday along North Market Street near 7th Street during a 9/11 day of service and remembrance.

"It was like 500 trains coming at me all at once," Mueller said of the dread and social anxiety he experienced. "It was more than I could bear emotionally."

He turned to alcohol when he began experiencing symptoms, but Mueller said he has since found a healthier and more meaningful way to cope -- serving his community.

"It's an integral part of my recovery," Mueller said. "It's sobriety, it's going to groups, treatment and volunteering. Those things are critical to the recovery process."

Mueller -- who is pursuing a master's degree in social work -- is a fellow with The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization that helps integrate veterans back into civilian life through community service projects.

Veterans and other volunteers marked the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Tuesday with a day of service and remembrance at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on North Market Street, an event Mueller organized.

Volunteers painted and did repairs on a house next to the store, which will be used as housing for Americorps volunteers, as well as a retail space to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Seventh- and eighth-graders from the Monocacy Valley Montessori School pitched in by pulling weeds and doing other landscaping jobs around the property.

"Habitat for Humanity is an organization that really has worked hard to work with our veterans in our community and on the national level," said Ron Cramer, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County.

"When Jeff called, we were very open to that. We have been wanting to do more work with our local veterans."

James Wagner, a recently retired 22-year veteran of the Air Force and Air Force Reserve who served in Iraq, said he learned about the event online and wanted to do his part.

Veterans, particularly young people who didn't have careers before joining the service, can benefit from such efforts to help them make the transition to life outside the military, Wagner said.

"I think it's great, especially a lot of the ones coming back now from Afghanistan," Wagner said. "What I like about this is the working with others within the community, not necessarily people who were in the military, and having that interaction between the two. I think that's fantastic and really necessary to really get them reacclimated to civilian life."

Lunch was served to the volunteers at the Bernard W. Brown Community Center across the street.

James Fetig, chief of external affairs with the Corporation of National and Community Service -- a public/private partnership that promotes service and distributes grants for community service projects -- addressed the attendees.

Fetig talked about the designation of Sept. 11 as a day of service, the brainchild of Jay Winik and David Paine, founders of an organization called My Good Deed.

Winik's brother, a Wall Street lawyer and volunteer firefighter, died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"He died wearing his fire gear," Fetig said. "He took the time day in and day out for service, service to his city."

Fetig said the point of the day of service was to change the focus of the emotions brought on by the attacks and celebrate the service of those who died.

"It's a day of hope. It's not a day of anger," Fetig said.