RALEIGH – On Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 5:20 a.m., nearly 200 men from central North Carolina gathered at Vaughn Towers at Carter Finley Stadium to climb 110 flights of stairs.
Organized by a men’s workout group called F3, for Fitness, Fellowship and Faith, the stair climb was in honor of the first responders who climbed 110 flights of stairs in the World Trade Center and all those heroes who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“If you think about that day, thousands of Americans who believed in something, this thing called America and their fellow man, ran into those buildings to help people,” said Brian Jodice, a member of F3. “It’s a powerful tribute… and it’s a chance to say, no matter how many years have gone by, we recognize their sacrifice and want to at least take an hour and climb these stairs in their memory.”
On this week’s seventeenth anniversary of those terror attacks, the men carried fire hoses up the stairs and knelt in prayer to honor the 2,978 people who died that day.
“It’s physically a tough deal, but its mentally just an inspiring and uplifting kind of day for us, to think about all those who gave so much for us on a fateful day for our country,” said Jodice.
For more information on F3’s regular events and boot camps across the state, visit https://f3nation.com.