Jon Stewart explains his ongoing philanthropic support of first
responders
[September 18, 2026]
By GLENN GAMBOA
Jon Stewart says he never really decided to focus his charity efforts on
first responders and their families. It just happened.
The award-winning host of “The Daily Show” said he wanted to feel useful
and support people who dedicated their lives to helping others.
“These aren’t the X-Men,” Stewart told The Associated Press. “They’re
not superheroes. They’re just men and women that made a decision. And
that decision was, ‘I’m gonna be there for people in their worst
moments. Whatever happens, happens. But that’s what I’ve decided to
do.’”
His support of the first responders to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in
2001 led to his angry lobbying and Congressional testimony in 2019 to
ensure that the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund did not run out
of money. He pushed to eliminate a loophole in the PACT Act that left
U.S. troops exposed to radiation during the Afghanistan War without
medical coverage. And it continues, as he announced Friday that he would
return as host of the First Responders Children’s Foundation’s Roll Call
of Heroes ceremony in New York’s Times Square on Oct. 28 to commemorate
National First Responders Day.
“You get to stand face to face with the individuals that are being
honored and give them an ‘attaboy’ and to meet really young people that
are involved in their communities,” he said. “It’s always nice to be
able to kind of touch the firmament of what holds this all together.”
First Responders Children’s Foundation President and CEO Jillian Crane
said the nonprofit is thrilled Stewart will return to host this year’s
event.
“His advocacy for first responders, especially those battling
9/11-related illnesses, makes him the perfect host for this annual
event,” she said. “As the only national nonprofit dedicated to the
children of first responders, we believe shining a light on their
parents, heroes who serve our communities every day, is a powerful way
to say thank you.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
[to top of second column]
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Mark Twain Prize recipient Jon Stewart is introduced at the start of
the 23rd annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, April 24, 2022. (AP
Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)
 Why is supporting first
responders and their families so important?
If we can’t take care of the people that take care of us, it exposes
a deep fundamental flaw in the kind of scaffolding you put up in
making a society. Obviously, having had the experience after 9/11,
you see just how tenuous the experiment is without people who are
willing to run towards the collapse. I think that, combined with the
kind of outrage at a political system that was more than willing to
laud them when they were needed and more than willing to discard
them when they were no longer at the focus. I think that created the
momentum.
Does supporting the children of first responders offer you a
sense of hope?
It’s like what they do when they reach a site. You’re sort of
triaging urgent need versus what can wait. And I think kids who have
lost a parent to these kinds of tragedies are kind of your
first-order triage event. Honestly, being involved, even though you
might hear more of the grief, actually, I think is a salve in some
respects to the pain of it. Action is sort of the antidote to that
feeling of helplessness and anxiety.
Does that sense of triage extend to today’s troubled world? Do
you feel like you have to keep adding issues to work on?
In general, there’s sort of the quiet activism of living pleasantly.
I mean you go about your day and try and be the best neighbor and
citizen and individual that you can be out there. The causes I have
sort of came about organically. And I want to make sure that when I
get involved with something that I do it thoroughly -- that it’s not
charity tourism. I want it to be something that I can fully involve
myself in and that what I can offer is something that they can use.
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