Deputies, Officers, Firefighters To Climb 110 Flights For 9/11 Anniversary

(KNSI) – Law enforcement officers across Minnesota will climb 110 flights of stairs next month to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The 9/11 Stair Climb Challenge is being coordinated statewide for the first time by the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association. Participants climb 110 flights, roughly 2,200 steps, representing the number of stories in each of the Twin Towers.

Training coordinator Matt Luitjens says he sent the challenge out to all 87 counties back in March, hoping to get at least one participant from each. He says about 25 counties have signed on so far. Some agencies have already completed their climbs, while most will take part on September 11th.

Luitjens says the event is meant to honor the first responders who ran toward the towers, but he says his motivation also comes from what happened in the days that followed. “I also remember the days and weeks immediately after the attacks and how that made me feel and the community aspect of that, you know, flags lining both sides of the streets and people just willing to help each other. That’s kind of why I wanted to do this statewide event, get back to that feeling, if you will.”

Luitjens was working a night shift at a prison on September 11th, 2001. He was also serving in the military at the time and re-enlisted shortly afterward, going on to serve 10 years in the Army National Guard, including a nine-month deployment to Egypt in 2003 with the Multinational Force and Observers. He plans to make his climb with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, wearing a weighted vest.

Closer to home, Wright County Sergeant Kevin Triplett will lead a group of about 25 people up the stairwell at the Wright County Justice Center in Buffalo. Triplett is also fire chief for the Montrose Fire Department and has been on the department for over 23 years.

The Justice Center has four levels and 89 steps from the bottom floor to the top. Climbers will make the trip 26 times to hit 2,158 steps, taking the elevator or the stairs back down between runs.

Triplett did the climb by himself last year in his sheriff’s office uniform. This year, at his sheriff’s encouragement, he will do it in full firefighter turnout gear including an air pack, which adds 60 to 70 pounds.

He says the day is not a race, and that people who climb one flight are just as welcome as those who do all 110. Triplett says the anniversary is about more than the 343 New York City firefighters who died, pointing also to the EMS crews, police officers and civilians who were killed, the firefighters who spent months at ground zero, and the military members who served in the wars that followed.

Triplett says he hopes people find their own way to mark the day. “Remember what happened, what you were doing, remember the sacrifices that so many made, have some time for some reflection, moments of silence, maybe take a flight of stairs up, and as you’re walking up those steps, just think about what took place that day.”

Triplett expects the Wright County group to grow before September 11th.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11th, 2001, when hijackers flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back against the hijackers.

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