As the nation paused to remember the events of Sept. 11 last week, a record turnout participated in the 14th annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at Lambeau Field.

The 14th annual stair climb, sponsored by Pierce Maufacturing, was held Saturday morning and brought over 2,100 climbers—firefighters, families, police officers, EMS providers, fitness groups and a football team—from several states to climb through the bowl of the historic stadium, home to the Green Bay Packers football team.

As climbers and spectators gathered outside the stadium, news radio traffic from the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, set the stage for climb, as each news report revealed the monumental tasks that firefighters, police and EMS crews encountered that morning in New York City. Many listening to the news reports bowed their heads, or wiped tears from their eyes.

“Each year, this reminds the 3,000 team members at Pierce what a special community we get to call home,” said Dan Meyer, vice president of sales for Pierce Manufacturing. “To each one of you that continue to show up 25 years later and keep that commitment that you made to never forget, thank you.”

Meyer said Pierce employees and others who volunteer at the event are the backbone of making the event so successful.

“I talked to one of the water station volunteers, and he said he has to sign up immediately, because the volunteer spots fill up in minutes. That is a real sign of a community that I want to live in and that I want to work in.”

The Pierce event is one of the largest attended in the U.S. and is the top grossing fundraiser stair climb for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, Meyer said.

Green Bay fire chief urges climbers to share the stories of 9/11

“By the time it was over, the course of the country had changed. So had the fire service," Green Bay Fire Chief Ray Fuiten said. Twenty-five years later, there are two questions we keep coming back to. What does it actually mean to never forget? And how do we keep telling this story to people who are not here when they were not even born?”

"I remember that morning, a good share of men and women of the Green Bay Metro Fire Department do not. They were not born yet. They have no memory of it," he said. 

"So what does it mean to you to never forget? It does not mean a date on the calendar. An anniversary marks something that is over. And this is not over. Three hundred and forty-three FDNY members died on Sept. 11 and 453 have died since, from what they have breathed at Ground Zero. And it's not finished. More than 10,000 FDNY members are living with a 9/11-related illness. Over 4,000 have cancer. Never forget means showing up for them," Fuiten said. 

He shared the story of his 21-year-old daughter, Katie, who had enlisted in the Army National Guard while she was a senior in high school as an example of continuing to tell the story. 

After returning from boot camp, he told her father that she wanted to go to New York City to see the 9/11 Memorial. Fuiten said that's the impact of continuing to tell the stories of 9/11.

"She told me, I want to see for herself what she's fighting for. Nobody assigned that trip to her. No formation, no ceremony, nobody checking a box. She has no memory of that day because she could not have one. long enough for it to reach her. And once it reached her, she needed to stand in the place where it happened."

Each wave of climbers was divided into groups of 343 particpants. 

He urged climbers to look at their badge, adding "It's somebody's son, somebody's father, somebody's husband. You carry him one full lap around Lambeau Field, 110 stories worth. And look around at the wave you are all standing, and the 343 climbers...This is the size of what we lost standing in front of all you people. This is how you tell the story to somebody who was not there."

"Twenty-five years from now, there will be firefighters on these steps who have not been born yet. Seeing these names, that is how 343 men stay alive."

A firefighter’s widow on honoring the fallen

In 2020, St. Paul, MN, Capt. Mike Paidar lost a brief battle with a job-related cancer, which was later tied to his time in the fire service. Before joining St. Paul, Paidar was a firefighter in Maple Grove, MN.

"Mike was a photo journalist at KSTP TV in St. Paul. He often pitched fire-related stories to the station, and I truly believe that 9/11 awakened something in him. The desire to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a (full-time) firefighter. You see, the fire service was already part of Mike's DNA. His father and grandfather were volunteer firefighters in Iowa," Julie Paidar explained. 

"After losing Mike, our family made a decision. We've been trying to turn our heart break into something positive for other firefighter families."

Julie has worked tirelessly to get to get other types of cancer to be deemed occupational cancers so that firefighters and their families can be assisted if they died from the job-related illnesses.

“As you climb these stairs, you are doing more than remembering Sept. 11,” Paidar said. “You are remembering the 343 FDNY firefighters and others who made the ultimate sacrifice 25 years ago. You are remembering the firefighters who have died in the years since. And you are supporting the families that are left behind.”

She shared the heartfelt story of going through Mike’s phone after he passed and she took pause when she came across a photo he took on the National Fire Academy grounds while he was taking a class there in 2013.

“I didn't know it at the time, but after his death, I found a photo on his phone. It was a photo of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. That's the same memorial where his name is now engraved.”

Later that year, the couple was in New York City and found out that the Stephen J. Stiller Tunnel to Towers Run was taking place, so on a whim, they took part in the event.

“He said, ‘Julie, we need to do this.” And we did. I'll never forget how it felt to run out of that tunnel together. We were met by a line of 343 firefighters. Each one of them holding a banner that represented one of the 343 who had died on Sept. 11th. It was incredibly moving and incredibly emotional. Mike always wanted to return to Emmittsburg for another fire academy class. He wanted to run another Tunnel to Towers with me, but he never got that chance. Today, standing here at Lambeau Field, I feel like I'm carrying him with me.”

Local firefighters reflect on the stair climb

Town of Neenah, WI, firefighter Andy Dalberg took part in his 12th stair climb this weekend, along with of his brother firefighters. He was climbing for FDNY firefighter Benjamin Suarez.

On the day of the Sept. 11 attacks, he was at high school and his father was a firefighter in Minneapolis. The incident had an impact on his life.

“At that time, it was the first time that it ever seemed real, that something could happen, you know? So, now to be a firefighter and to be able to do it in remembrance of all the friends that he's had that have lost their lives to cancer and for all the 343, it's just a remembrance of the reason we do it,” said Dalberg. “It really hits home every year, and I think the lead up to it (this year), the football game on Netflix all that they did to honor the lost, it gets another heartstring for you.”

He said the previous town where he was a firefighter had a 9/11 memorial with a steel beam from the World Trade Center and he was able to meet a family who lost their daughter in 2001.

“You just hear a new story every year, or you hear somebody else how it affected them differently.”

Nick Dorton, a lieutenant with the Town of Neenah Fire Department, was in ninth grade science class when the Twin Towers fell.

“Getting out here with our guys and just doing something to do some teamwork, and especially for something so important to bring back and keep the memory alive,” Dorton said of his fourth time participating in the climb.

He said the event allows him to reflect on the events 25 years earlier and how it impacted the world. The news radio reports at the beginning of the climb bring the reality forward every year.

This year, he brought his girlfriend, who climbed alongside him.

 “I told her that we're going to hear a lot of those clips at the opening ceremony, and it tears your heart apart. Every year, you see a new video of somebody else's footage.”

"It was really more emotional than I thought it would be, honestly, like the recordings at the beginning, and I got kind of choked up a couple times with the speakers,” said Dorton’s girlfriend, Crystal Patton, “At the end, where people are clapping for you, and that was really cool.” 

She plans to return the next year with her sons to take part in the climb.

Brandon Hoefler, who joined the Little Chute, WI, Fire Department less than two years ago, had been aware of the climb for the last decade but this was his first time participating along with other members of the department.

He was in fourth grade when the 2001 attacks occurred and said he’s an avid viewer of documentaries on history, including Sept. 11.

“When we got to the 78th floor and you ring that bell, then you got to think, now that’s the time that these guys went to work. It really put some perspective into how hard it was.” Hoefler said of the climb. “Just seeing and feeling what they went through is unbelievable.”