Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, a crowd gathered at the Visitor’s Center in Claremont on Friday morning to climb the height of the Twin Towers.
The participants spanned generations — from children as young as 5 to walkers in their 80s — some even brought their dogs. Two firefighters climbed in full turnout gear.
“It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since that fateful day,” Fire Chief Jim Chamberlin said. “The fact that a quarter century later we are still gathering to remember is both humbling and promising of who we are as a city and as a community.”
The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, organized by Claremont Parks and Recreation, asks participants to complete the equivalent of 110 stories — the height of the World Trade Center towers — to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001. That toll included 343 New York City firefighters, 421 emergency workers and 71 law enforcement officers.
Climbers chose how far to go. The heaviest option was 20 loops of 110 stairs in a weighted vest or gear; others walked a few loops at their own pace.
The morning opened at 8:30 a.m. with the national anthem, sung by Danni Perry and bagpipes played by Andy Chamblin. The climb itself began at 8:46 a.m. — the moment the first plane struck the north tower — and the music paused for a moment of silence at 9:11 a.m.
The number of participants had grown well beyond last year’s.
Addressing the crowd before the event, Chamberlin asked how many people remembered exactly where they were that morning, then how many had not yet been born.
“Those hands tell an important story,” he said of those with no memory of the day. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that we and they never forget.”
His department’s mission, he said, is “rooted in substance.”
“The substance is in showing up,” he said. “It’s all about you being here this morning, 25 years later, willing to climb, willing to remember.”
Tom Buinicky, a retired Claremont firefighter, said he was on his way to play golf with friends when the attacks unfolded and did not hear about them until afterward. He had been on duty the day before. “It was a real shock,” he said.
He came Friday with a colleague who retired alongside him. “We’re going to do as much as we can, whether we do the whole thing,” he said.
Karen Henderson, a nurse who worked at the White River Junction VA Medical Center on Sept. 11, 2001, said she spent that day caring for patients — including one who told her he had relatives in the towers.
Henderson came with Sally Avery and Matt Monaco, who shared memories of watching the attacks unfold — one from a conference in the White Mountains, another from a small television at work in Massachusetts. All three said they came out Friday to support the community and help remember the people lost that day.
“25 years later, we are still here,” Chamberlin told the crowd before the climb began. “We are still showing up.”
