Participants Prepare for 1 WTC Stair Climb

About 1,000 participants will ascend 180 flights of stairs in honor of the first responders who died on 9/11 in an upcoming charity event at One World Trade Center on May 17.

Hosted by the Captain Billy Burke Foundation and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the event – the first of its kind at 1 WTC – will raise funds to build homes for catastrophically injured veterans.

Among the participants is Janet Roy, the sister of Burke, the FDNY Captain who died on 9/11 and after whom the foundation is named, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Steve Coyne, a Chicago police officer who hopes to raise $911 for the event, will also be climbing next week, as will Jamie Cossler, a Hendersonville, Tenn. fire captain.

Greg Kalkwarf, a Denver businessman who was at the 2013 Boston Marathon when two bombs exploded at the finish line, decided to join the climb because his experience at the marathon gave him “a whole new appreciation for what everyone in Lower Manhattan went through on 9/11,” he told the Denver Business Journal.

The Suffolk Times, a local newspaper covering part of Suffolk County on Long Island, featured six women who plan to partake, declaring their team the “East End Wonder Women.” They have raised more than $2,500.

“This is something I didn’t have to think twice about,” Donna Carnevale, a resident of Cutchogue, said. “As Americans, why wouldn’t we do this?”

By Jordan Friedman, 9/11 Memorial Research and Digital Projects Associate