About 1,000 miles from the site of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, you would have found several local firefighters finishing the climb for those lost on September 11th, 2001. Firefighters from the Brussels-Union-Gardner and Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Department were among the over 2,000 people who participated in Saturday’s 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at Lambeau Field. The event is a tribute to the 343 firefighters who gave their lives the day terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City. Participants are given a card to climb the stairs with the name and picture of one of those fallen firefighters. One of those heroes was Rev. Mychal Judge, the New York Fire Department Chaplain who was the first official casualty of the attacks. According to NorthJersey.com, Judge remained in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, praying for firefighters rushing up to save who they could from the building’s lobby and mezzanine until debris from the fallen South Tower blew through the glass and buried him. The name now has special meaning to Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Chief Chris Hecht, who carried his memory up and down the aisles of the Lambeau Field bowl.
In its 10th year, the event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the National Fallen Firefighters Fund.
