One by one they climbed up the stair case at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville, and as each step they took they remembered those New York firefighters who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
VBMC-Brownsville on Wednesday held its first annual 9/11 Memorial Stair climb to honor and remember the firefighters. Hospital employees, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and others participated in the event, where they each climbed up four flights of stairs.
Mary Jane Lopez, a registered nurse and diabetics educator, has been employed with VBMC-Brownsville for 10 years. Lopez decided to participate in the stair climb as a way to always remember the New York firefighters.
“It was emotional,” walking up the steps she said. “Every step I just remember people falling out of the windows, running for their lives and it was emotional. I had to do it (the climb) slow because trying to walk and cry at the same time, you lose your breath.”
Saturday will make 20 years that four organized terrorist attacks against the United States left over 2,977 dead and 25,000 injured. Four airplanes were hijacked by 19 al Qaeda terrorists shortly after take off.
Two planes crashed into the North and South towers at the World Trade Center in New York. Another crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a fourth into Stonycreek Township Pennsylvania.
Leslie Bingham, CEO of VBMC-Brownsville, said she decided to have the stair climb remembrance event because VBMC-Harlingen has had the same event in the past and it has been well received by the community.
“We wanted to make sure that we were doing something to commemorate, especially the 20th anniversary,” she said. “The turnout has been so great and hopefully it will be an annual event for us.”
Bingham said she is happy to see so many health care workers participating in the event.
“During the COVID response when we first started and we were calling our health care workers first responders, their image of first responders are fire and police and our federal agents and I think they had a hard time recognizing that they were first responders also and health care heroes. They’ve always wanted to be able to recognize all our law enforcement and fire for what they do and so today was a great opportunity for them to do that.”
The image of the New York firefighters climbing the stairs of the twin towers in an attempt to help rescue those trapped inside is something Elias Rodriguez, supervisor and public relations officer of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will always remember.
“If this is a little challenging going up a flight of stairs, I can imagine with smoke, debris, screams, all kinds of confusion going on, how difficult it must have been for our first responders to respond and yet all of them stepped up to the challenge and did their part. Sadly, some of them didn’t make it and some are still dealing with the aftermath…we remember them today and this whole week, especially on Saturday the 20th anniversary and we will not forget,” Rodriguez said.
For Ricardo Najera, deputy chief for the Brownsville Fire Department, Wednesday’s event was a great way to honor those who lost their lives on that “fateful Tuesday morning.”
“This is just a way to keep the memory alive in our community, in our nation and we need to make sure that we never forget, never forget the lives that were lost by the 343 firefighters, we need to make sure we never forget the lives that were lost of the citizens, the innocent citizens that day at the World Trade Center. We just need to make sure that we never forget,” Najera said.
