Michael J. Cawley Memorial Foundation website<\/a>, Michael covered a shift for a firefighter the night before and wasn\u2019t on duty the morning of Sept. 11. When he heard about the attacks, however, he climbed aboard Rescue 4 and headed to Manhattan to help with rescue efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\nCawley, 32, was one of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day. His memory has since become part of a tradition carried on by college lacrosse players nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
College lacrosse programs across the country participate in the stair climb, an event that brings teams together in remembrance of the courage and service shown in the face of tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The stair climb was originally started by a University of Michigan lacrosse player named Kevin Kearns and was brought to Lehigh by Brian Mullen, \u201827, a friend of the player who started the tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mullen said the team participated in the fundraiser last year, but this year the team decided to start a fundraiser to contribute money to the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Lehigh-Lax-1078x809.jpg\")
Lehigh men\u2019s lacrosse players make their way up the bleachers at Goodman Stadium during the early-morning climb. The team participated in the fundraiser to support the Michael J. Cawley Memorial Fund. (Courtesy of Brian Mullen)<\/p>\n
The team has already raised about $5,500, and the organization as a whole has raised about $240,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to bring joy to the families who\u2019ve lost people,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cI know the people who\u2019ve lost people, they\u2019ll see us running on social media, and we\u2019ll put together videos and pictures, and they\u2019ll send them out. It brings joy to them to see that people are still remembering the ones they\u2019ve lost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said participating in this fundraiser hits close to home for the team, as several players have parents who are firefighters, and know of firefighters who lost their lives on Sept. 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christopher Constantine, \u201828, said the stair climb was especially meaningful for him because his father served as a New York City firefighter for 25 years before retiring from Rescue 3. His father also worked in emergency medical services on the day of the attacks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the firefighter community has a strong sense of unity, particularly in the way people come together in the wake of tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts into consideration how grateful I am to wake up every day because so many people lost their lives that day,\u201d Constantine said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely just something to be grateful for every day, because that was definitely tragic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clayt Gengras, \u201827, said the stair climb allows the team to bond while supporting a meaningful cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good to do anything hard together, it just makes you closer,\u201d Gengras said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gengras said the team sent the donation link to friends and family, and even the woman who cuts his and several of his teammates\u2019 hair donated $100 to support the team and the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Constantine said continuing traditions like the stair climb is important for keeping the memory of those lost on Sept. 11 alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the players, the climb was about more than reaching 2,071 steps. It was about remembering why they climbed them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To support the team\u2019s fundraiser, donate here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One flight. Then another. In the stillness of Goodman Stadium, the Lehigh men\u2019s lacrosse team climbed the concrete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4842,119,121,120,118467,726,295],"class_list":["post-284058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-3-minute-read","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-mens-lacrosse","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}