Stadium Stair Run Honors 9/11 Victims

The University of Cincinnati

Veterans Programs & Services Office

is teaming up with UC’s

Army

and

Air Force ROTC

detachments to plan the inaugural 9/11 Stadium Stair Run.

The memorial event, to be held Friday, Sept. 11, at UC’s

newly renovated Nippert Stadium

, remembers the more than 400 first responders and nearly 3,000 civilians who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

“We’re running the stairs at Nippert Stadium in their memory,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jason Bender, the professor of military science in UC‘s Army ROTC detachment.

“We want to remind those who participate of the physical exertion and will to continue as exhibited by those first responders who climbed the stairwells of the World Trade Center looking for and attempting to evacuate survivors before the towers collapsed.”   

“That event touched the life of nearly every American and we want to ensure that those who perished that day are never forgotten,” he said.

Participants are challenged to climb 2,071 steps in 56 minutes—symbolic of the 110 floors of each of the World Trade Center towers.  Registration for the event, which is free to participate in and open to the community, begins on-site at 5:30 a.m. The first 300 participants will receive a free commemorative T-shirt.

The stair climb begins at 6:46 a.m. and runs through 7:42 a.m. While the climb takes place earlier than the actual events the day of the attacks, the event is timed in recognition of specific moments from that day, said Bender.  

Breaks will be observed throughout in observance of when key events transpired, such as when the second airplane struck the South Tower, the crashes of Flight 93 in Somerset, Pa. and Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and concluding with the moment when the FAA grounded all flights over the continental U.S.

The UC Army ROTC detachment will hold a scholarship drive during the event, with proceeds benefiting a scholarship fund in memory of Army Master Sgt. Corey Hood.  

The fund, to be administered by the Yellow Ribbon Foundation, honors the West Chester parachutist and 2001 Lakota West High School graduate who died Aug. 16 following an accident during a performance of the Chicago Air and Water Show.   

Hood, 32, a member of the Army’s

Golden Knights

parachute team, served five tours of duty in Iraq and received two Bronze stars and two Meritorious Service medals, among other accolades.  

UC Army ROTC Master Sgt. Ralph Arias served with Hood and were stationed together often since 2005.

“Corey was a close friend of mine, so establishing the scholarship fund in his name and memory ensures we remember his character and recognize his best attributes —his loyalty, integrity, and selflessness —as we seek to identify those same characteristics in potential scholarship awardees and reward them for their demonstration of those characteristics,” Arias said.  

For more information, go to

http://bit.ly/1FjRmPf

or call the UC Veterans Programs and Services office at 513-556-6811, the UC Army ROTC office at 513-556-3660 or the UC Air Force ROTC office at 513-556-2237.