CINCINNATI — Hundreds of people climbed 2,071 stairs during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium Wednesday, 23 years after the attacks that changed the nation, launched wars, and left nearly 3,000 people dead.
The stair run began at 6:46 a.m. in reference to the first hijacked airplane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. The run lasted exactly 56 minutes, which represented the time between another airplane hitting the towers and the time it collapsed.
Organizer Gregory Roberson, Veteran and Program Services coordinator, said the event serves to remind people who were alive at the time of the attacks of the horror of the day, and inform those who hadn't been born what happened.
"You have some folks as we were just talking about like my daughter, who was 8 months old, or my son who wasn't born yet during that time period," Roberson said. "So we want to keep that memory alive, honor the first responders who ran to the danger and just appreciate everything that they do and did for our nation."
Roberson said the stair climb also honored the victims of American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon, and of Flight 93, where passengers forced the hijacked plane to the ground in a field in Pennsylvania.
Veteran James Penlon addressed the crowd before they began to climb the stairs.
Penlon went to Ground Zero in October 2001 to help in the victim recovery efforts and said he wanted to ensure future generations knew what happened.
"It was nothing that you could prepare for," he said. "It was like going into a combat zone, and it was very emotional. Still to this day talking about it, it chokes me up."
Penlon said he hoped future generations would continue events like the stair climb to keep the message, Never Forget, alive.
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