Firefighters joined Oxford community members to climb the equivalent of 110 stories at the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday morning. The climb, equivalent to the height of one of the World Trade Center towers, honored the sacrifice of first responders on Sept. 11, 2001.
While the Lafayette-Oxford-University (LOU) community has long hosted a variety of informal and formal events commemorating the 2001 attacks, this year was the second-annual stair climbing event.
“Over the last decade, we’ve gotten feedback from our local first responders that they’ve wanted to do a stair climb locally,” Marlee Carpenter, the director of the community’s volunteer hub Stronger Together Oxford, said.
Even in the rain, firefighters and LOU community volunteers were determined to trek the wet stairs of Oxford’s largest stadium.
“I think we had a lot more participation even in these dreary conditions,” Oxford Fire Department’s Deputy Chief Adam Patton said. “We have climbed stairs to some degree, but not 110 floors, especially around Oxford.”
The visual created by Oxford’s first responders as they slowly climbed the visitors section was a stark reminder of the grueling task given to New York City’s bravest on that fateful day. Protective gear, air tanks and other equipment typically adds 100 pounds on a responding firefighter’s body, but Patton pointed out that the firefighters responding to the 9/11 attacks were carrying more.
“(The firefighters on 9/11) were carrying extra hose bundles, extra bottles,” Patton said. “They were carrying everything, so they had even more than 100 pounds on their back.”
Community volunteers in the stadium’s home section were given a specific first responder killed in the attacks to think about during their climb. The names, provided by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, were accompanied by photos of the victims on each participant’s lanyard.
Leyton Turk, junior philosophy major and member of the UM’s ROTC, was proud to honor Gerard Patrick Schrang of the New York City Fire Department on his lanyard. Schrang is believed to have died in the North Tower when it fell and is survived by his wife and two children.
“I’m happy that I can honor him,” Turk said. “The most important thing really is to never forget.”
If climbing more than 100 stories was not enough of a challenge, Turk completed his trek while he flew the American flag on a heavy, metal flagpole.
“I think we have to keep talking about these things, and we can’t make it a touchy subject. And we also can’t make it a joke,” Turk said. “It has to be somewhere down the middle, where we talk about it with a sense of remembrance and pride and honor.”
The proceeds from sponsors and participant’s entry fees of $14 benefitted the Firefighter Community Fund, a non-profit organization set up by Oxford’s firefighters. The fund provides a variety of services for the LOU community year-round, from breast-cancer awareness to home repairs for families in need.
“They’ll help repair heaters if needed for community members here; in the summer, they’ll do the same thing but with A/Cs,” Carpenter said.
During the holiday season, free turkeys are given out by firefighters for Thanksgiving and a toy drive is organized for Christmas. Opportunities for the LOU community to serve people and organizations in need can be found on the Stronger Together Oxford website.
The stair climb provided tangible benefits for the community not only in fundraising but also in the awareness raised about the sacrifices made on Sept. 11.
“I was actually a member of a volunteer firefighter department on 9/11 in my hometown, and it’s always been just a jerk to my heartstrings,” Patton said.
The nation’s collective memory of the attacks can be hard to absorb for those born after 2001. Events like these are a way for Patton and his department to pass their collective memory to the young students that volunteered to spend their Saturday morning climbing with them.
“It’s definitely our job, the ones who remember, to educate the younger generations about this tragic event because it did bring us together — closer together as a nation,” Patton said.
