Organizers hope for 500 participants in fifth Four Corners 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb

When it was held for the first time in 2017, the Four Corners 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb was conceived as an every-other-year fundraiser, according to Eric Ivie, a Farmington firefighter and co-coordinator of the event.

That was because organizers didn’t want to ask too much of their sponsors for the event or from the folks who participate in it, he said, as they help raise money for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the families of deceased firefighters and works to reduce preventable firefighter deaths and injuries.

But over the past several years, the response from sponsors and community members has been so strong that organizers — after skipping the years 2018 and 2020 — have made the fundraiser an annual event. This year’s installment, the fifth, will take place Saturday, Sept. 9 at Ricketts Park, 1101 Fairgrounds Road in Farmington.

“It blows me away,” Ivie said of the degree of community support the event receives. “It’s amazing.”

Kilian Carey, the president of the Farmington Professional Firefighters Association and the coordinator of the stair climb, said the event is structured as a fundraiser, but it also is designed to remind folks of the sacrifices made by firefighters every day in America — and especially those who perished in the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The events that took place on 9/11 changed the course of our history,” he said. “ … It’s important everyone understands who took place that day. … In the days, weeks and months after that event, Americans came together. It’s important we remember the history behind it.”

Those fallen firefighters are represented symbolically by participants in the event, who walk the bleachers at Ricketts Park — home of the Connie Mack World Series — several times in an effort to mimic the efforts of the firefighters who climbed the World Trade Center towers. Each participant walks for one of the 343 firefighters who died that day, carrying a badge emblazoned with that firefighter’s name and image.

It takes seven laps of the Ricketts Park grandstand — up one aisle and down the next, with only the “up” steps counting toward the total — to match the effort that would have been required to climb the 110 stories of the World Trade Center towers. Participants — who pay a registration fee of $35 to take part — are encouraged, but not required, to finish the route.

Carey said a surprisingly high number of those who begin the trek manage to finish it — somewhere between 90% and 95%, he estimated. That includes a number of local firefighters who undergo the challenge fully outfitted in what’s called full bunker gear — a regulation overcoat, pants, boots and helmet that can add 15 to 20 pounds of weight. In the past, some firefighters have even done the stair climb while carrying and breathing through a self-contained breathing apparatus and mask that adds another 50 to 70 pounds of weight, he said.

Ivie laughed when he recalled how a young man participating in last year’s climb did it dressed as a knight in full armor. The point for many people, he said, is to accomplish the feat while gaining a fuller understanding of the kinds of physical challenges many firefighters face on a regular basis.

The goal each year is to have a participant for each firefighter who died on 9/11, and by Sept. 6, that goal already had been met, Carey said. By the afternoon of that day, 380 people already had registered, and he said he was hoping for up to 500 people by the time it was over.

The event begins with same-day registration at 7 a.m., followed by an opening ceremony at 7:50 a.m. The stair climb itself begins promptly at 8:46 a.m., which was the time the first highjacked airliner collided with the north tower of the WTC. The climb continues until noon.

Ivie described the opening ceremony as perhaps his favorite part of the event. It includes the screening of a video on the Ricketts Park video screen that summarizes the events of Sept. 11, 2001. It also includes the display of 343 flags on the Ricketts Park field, with each one symbolizing a fallen firefighter.

When the Four Corners 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb was held for the first time six years ago, it attracted 250 participants – not quite enough for every fallen firefighter to be represented, but a fine showing for a new fundraiser that was one of only a handful of similar events across the country.

Since then, the local event has become one of the nation’s premier 9/11 stair climb fundraisers, Carey said. It annual raises the fifth-most money of any such event for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, placing Farmington among the ranks of such much-larger markets as Denver and Indianapolis.

“We get beat by the big guys,” Carey said.

While the event draws the participation of almost every member of the Farmington Fire Department — aside from those who are on duty that morning and can’t take part — Carey said most of climbers are local residents who want to lend their support. He said those who don’t feel like they can meet the physical demands of climbing the stars can opt to take part in a 5k walk that is laid out around the Ricketts Park field, which already was draped in red, white and blue bunting on Sept. 6 in anticipation of this weekend’s fundraiser.

“Our biggest goal is just to get people out here,” he said, noting that many of the firefighters with whom he works these days hadn’t even been born when 9/11 took place.

Although it’s been more than two decades since the events of that fateful day, Carey said he’s still struck by the way people react when the 9/11 video is played at Ricketts Park during the opening ceremony for the stair climb.

“When we’re playing that video, it’s deadly silent,” he said. “It’s uplifting to bring that back and highlight the importance of what’s going on.”

Call 505-599-1430 or visit 4cornersstairclimb.com for more information. Each participant receives a T-shirt, a swag bag and breakfast, while cold water and sports drinks are served at several points along the stair climb or 5k route during the event.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Farmington fundraiser honors sacrifices of fallen firefighters on 9/11