(WACO, Texas) — Nearly two million steps were taken at Baylor University's McLane Stadium on Friday as about 1,000 people gathered to honor the first responders who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — 25 years later.
Hundreds of participants climbed up and down thousands of stairs in memory of the firefighters, police officers, and emergency responders who rushed into the World Trade Center towers that day.
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Sophia DeSilva, a member of Baylor's Army ROTC, said the physical act of climbing stairs brings the reality of that day into focus.
"With every step you're remembering exactly what those people went through, and how physically demanding it was. We always talk about how they went into the tower and they saved all these people, but the amount of steps that they had to climb is just unfathomable for a lot of people. So the fact that we come out here and have everybody climb those steps, I think it's just one more thing that we can do to have those individuals remember," DeSilva said.
The student-led event began four years ago and has grown each year. DeSilva said Friday's turnout was the largest the event has seen. She noted that the event was organized and run entirely by senior cadets.
"Everything was cadet run by the senior class. So I think that's the biggest thing that I also want to call attention to, is this isn't even people who were around for 9/11 that want to do it. It's people who are removed from this situation, that are still wanting to put this on," DeSilva said.
DeSilva said it is important for this generation and future generations to understand the full weight of what happened 25 years ago.
"One of our biggest motivators is the fact that we are generation removed from 9/11. Most of the cadets in the program weren't alive whenever it happened. So we've heard stories from parents or family friends, but we didn't actually experience what happened. And so I think our biggest thing is that we don't want anyone to forget about what happened and what those servicemen and women went through whenever those initial attacks occurred," DeSilva said.
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