SRU students walk '110 flights'
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University students were up to the challenge Saturday morning in a different kind of 9/11 anniversary observance.
Teams and individuals took part in the 911 Memorial Stair Climb, ascending and descending 2,071 steps on five staircases at Jack Critchfield Park on the SRU campus. The steps represented the 110 floors of the World Trade Center that first responders and firefighters climbed on the morning of the terrorist attacks.
Keisha Booker, assistant director of multicultural development the SRU Office for Inclusive Excellence, who organized the event with graduate assistant Grace Laudenslager, said the stair climbing began around 9 a.m.This followed an opening ceremony that included presentation of colors, remarks from Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo and Booker and music.“There was a memorial lap around the baseball field by people wearing tags with the names of the fallen,” Booker said.“Walkers had to go nine times up and down each flight of stairs to equal the 110 flights in the Trade Center,” said Booker. “The route mimics how many floors were in the tower.”The first stair climbers were groups representing the campus ROTC unit, SRU students who were members of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Department who tackled the stairs in full fire fighting gear and doctorate candidates in physical therapy and occupational therapy.After the group climbs, the stadium was open until 1 p.m. for individuals from the campus or the community who wanted to try the stairs.“It's a way to pay tribute to the first responders and a way to keep students active,” Booker said.The day also included scheduled visits by therapy dogs, spin art and snow cones for children and a chance for people to record where they were on the day of the attacks 20 years ago.Laudenslager said she came to the university three weeks ago and immediately started planning for the memorial stair climb.“It was intimidating but I had done programming before,” she said. “It was really cool how it all turned out.”Cooling off after the stair climb Saturday morning was Nathan Marchard, an SRU senior and battalion commander of U.S. Army ROTC program.“Today we had 11 participants and the color guard this morning,” Marchard said.He said it took his group 25 to 30 minutes for his group to complete the stair challenge.Marchard said because of the number of people on the stairs his group kept itself to a walking pace.“It was kind of nice to go slow and think about what we were doing and why we were doing it,” he said.SRU seniors Jacob Baird and Brittany Fitz took on the stairs in full firefighting gear: boots, pants, helmet and air pack. They are both members of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company. Baird is a lieutenant in the department.Baird said they donned the gear to honor the first responders at the towers that day 20 years ago.“We know how they felt 20 years ago going up 110 flights and then they had to go to work,” said Baird, who estimated the weight of the gear he and Fitz were carrying was 60 pounds.“It was hard. We'll definitely be feeling it later,” he said.Fitz said, “I can do this at a comfortable walking pace.”Fitz, who's a homeland security major with a dual minor in fraud and organizational security, said she and Baird have both been involved with fire departments in their hometowns since they were 14 and both joined the Slippery Rock department as freshmen at Slippery Rock University.
