Local first responders and Trash Pandas partner for 9/11 memorial stair climb

By GraciAnn Goodin

MADISON – While Madison residents know Toyota Field as the home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas baseball team, the stadium will serve a more somber purpose as the location for an upcoming 9/11 memorial stair climb.

Beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, a memorial service and stair climb will be held at Toyota Field, 500 Trash Panda Way. The event is free and open to the public.

In past years, local fire and police departments have held memorial services honoring the first responders who lost their lives during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This year marks the first time that an accompanying stair climb will be held in the area, though.

The Trash Pandas Manager of Special Events Brooke Lack said that she saw Toyota Field’s potential as a space for a memorial stair climb. The team then partnered with Madison Fire & Rescue and Madison City Police Department.

Cities across the country host similar memorial services in which participants climb the equivalent of the 110 stories in the Twin Towers that firefighters climbed to save people 23 years ago. Some stair climbs limit participants to 343, the number of firefighters who died that day, but Lack emphasized that anyone who wants to come and pay their respects is welcome.

Lack plans on printing off pictures of the 343 firefighters who died, which participants can grab to honor a specific person as they complete the climb.

Prior to the stair climb, the fire and police departments will present an honor guard ceremony and brief memorial service.

“It’s letting the world know that we have not forgotten the sacrifices that were given for trying to save people,” said Captain Dan Pickens, community risk reduction and public information officer of Madison Fire & Rescue.

In addition to commemorating the events of 9/11, the ceremony provides an opportunity to educate people about the sacrifices that firefighters make to save people every day. Pickens explained that younger firefighters may not have been born when 9/11 happened, so it serves as a reminder that tragedy could happen at any second.

“We do understand the severity [of the job], and our families understand the likelihood could be that we end up losing our lives in a shift,” Pickens said. “So we want people to walk away with pride, knowing that we as a community and as a group of firefighters are there giving everything we have for somebody else.”

Following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, national pride swelled, as well as appreciation for military members and first responders. Lack shared she hopes the memorial will bring this same recognition and gratitude back to the forefront of everyone’s minds.

“I think it’s going to be really incredible and really touching for them to feel supported by their community,” Lack said. “I think things have just changed a lot in the last five to ten years, and I think that a lot of military and police and fire have started to really feel a little unseen.”

Lack said that as Huntsville has grown, people have realized that it has the same responsibility as large cities across the country to hold events that allow people to remember the national tragedy on a local level. Both the Trash Pandas and Madison Fire & Rescue want to see a large turnout in hopes that the stair climb becomes an annual event.