Participants and spectators gather for the opening safety briefing before the annual UCF 9/11 Stair Climb Challenge at the Acrisure Bounce House on Sept. 6.
Shilo O’Malley
The UCF Office of Military and Veteran Student Success, in collaboration with veterans’ fitness group Team Red, White & Blue, hosted the 9/11 Stair Climb to Remember at the Acrisure Bounce House on Sunday.
The annual UCF 9/11 Stair Climb Challenge encourages participants to make five loops up and down each staircase at the ends of the Bounce House stadium bleachers. Participants choose how to complete the loops by running, walking or “rucking”, wearing weighted equipment to simulate the challenges faced by New York firefighters 25 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ascending and descending a total of 2,200 steps, participants are encouraged to push themselves to walk a rough equivalent of the Twin Towers, allowing them to complete the journey hundreds of first responders embarked on.
Bringing this simple yet profound experience to people started when Matt Winstel, MVSS Lead Certifying Official, and Michael Kepner, Director of the UCF Office of Military and Veteran Success, watched a man climbing a Stairmaster.
“And we said, ‘Why can’t we bring that to UCF?'” said Kepner to the Sept. 6 crowd.
Members of the Orlando Police Department SWAT Team arrive to begin the stair climb during the annual Climb to Remember event at Acrisure Bounce House on Sept. 6.
Shilo O’Malley
The event was free and open to the public, and several families ran alongside the various groups. Participating groups were the UCF Air Force and Army ROTC, the UCF Girls Rowing Team and the Orlando Police Department SWAT team, who participated in full kit with twenty-pound body vests and full-length camouflage pants.
“This is not a race, and there is no prize if you win,” Winstel, a Navy veteran, said.
Participants were encouraged not to outpace one another but rather to challenge themselves and reflect on what was endured by New York firefighters and first responders who experienced the Sept. 11 attacks firsthand.
With a relentlessly beating sun, Winstel offered to be interviewed while he climbed and descended the stairs. Winstel explained that he was wearing a body vest, which met the same standards as those worn by SWAT, as an additional challenge.
“I think the nation as a whole has done an incredible job of remembering and supporting,” Winstel said. “It was 25 years ago; there’s an entire generation that has come along since then that was born after that event, so it’s important for us to do what we can do to remind them, and for us to tell our stories so hopefully this doesn’t happen again.”
The climb brought together all ages. Ralph Papenaugh, 58, a member of the Daytona chapter of Team Red, White & Blue, has attended this event for three years. Working as a truck driver on Sept. 11, he recalled his experience of the attack as he stood between a row of bleachers.
“I was at a truck stop when I heard about what was happening, and it pretty much stopped everything,” Papenaugh said, as sweat pooled in his hand and dripped off the flagpole hoisted over his shoulder. “For that day, everybody was sitting in the truck stop watching what was going on.”
Andrew Chowdhury, senior criminal science major and a member of the Knights Emergency Medical Response Unit club, was a runner at the event. He was born after 9/11, so he said this event allowed him to “better understand the sacrifices that those first responders made in the attacks.”
“The same stuff that allows us to go into a burning building and conduct interior-structural firefighting is the same stuff that keeps us hot,” Chowdhury said. “This is like a fraction of the perspective of what those firefighters went through on 9/11.”
Accompanying the sound of shoes on metal were shouts and cheers of encouragement as runners moved in single-file lines up and down the stairs. At the end of long stretches of the march, volunteers working at the event provided moral support and ice-cold water.
At the Climb to Remember on Sept. 6, participants tackle the Acrisure Bounce House bleachers by looping up one side and down the other in honor of 9/11.
Shilo O’Malley
Jessica Casillas, Navy veteran and sophomore pre-nursing major, wasn’t at the walk on behalf of a group or organization. She was inspired by the stories of older patients she had while serving in the military.
“I had some patients who were part of when the Pentagon got hit by the plane, so I’m just doing it to honor them,” said Casillas. “A lot of them have survivor’s guilt and their stories are very touching to me, so I just came out here to do it.”
As climbers finished their loops, whether they finished the full route or even a single loop, they were met at the bottom of the final staircase with applause.
After the climb, participants laughed, told jokes and exchanged perspectives on the attack and the years preceding.
“It just sounded like a lot of fear that was in people’s hearts that day,” Casillas said. “They pushed themselves up all those flights of stairs to help people that day, so I can push myself to do this.”