Hillsdale College Students and Community Members Remember 9/11 Together
Hillsdale hosted the fire department’s stair climb in honor of 9/11 firefighters, and students planted flags in memory of those who died in the attacks.
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College hosted the Hillsdale Fire Department’s second annual Never Forget 9/11 Event on Sept. 11 in Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium. Firefighters from seven local departments, along with participants from the College and the community, reenacted the World Trade Center stair climb.
At the beginning of the event, students in Hillsdale’s Hymn Singing Club sang “God Bless America” and “Amazing Grace.”
“I was reminded of how, in the days following 9/11, we as a nation turned our eyes toward Heaven.”
“As the student Hymn Singing Club sang ‘God Bless America,’ I was reminded of how, in the days following 9/11, we as a nation turned our eyes toward Heaven,” said Jeffery Rogers, associate dean of men. “In the midst of pain and uncertainty, we recognized that God cares for us. Thank God!”
Around 100 people, including firefighters from seven local fire departments, participated in the stair climb. They climbed up and down the stand in the football stadium for about 2,200 steps — representing the steps to the 110th stories of the World Trade Center Towers — as a memorial to the firefighters who died in the attacks.
The event began last year when Captain Matt Halleck of the Hillsdale Fire Department coordinated with Rogers to hold a memorial stair climb in Hillsdale’s football stadium.
“I was a firefighter when the 9/11 attacks happened, and I’d wanted to do a stair climb to help people remember what took place on 9/11, where we lost 343 firefighters in the attacks,” Halleck said. “The college had the facility. I talked to Chief Rogers, and next thing I know, we’re doing a stair climb on 9/11. We started it last year, and it’s grown beyond our department. This year we invited all 14 departments in the county.”
Earlier in the day, the Hillsdale College chapter of Young Americans for Freedom created a memorial to honor those who died in the 9/11 attacks as part of YAF’s nationwide 9/11: Never Forget Project.
“This memorial is a way to commemorate the lives of those who died in the 9/11 attacks,” said Savana Greb, chair of Hillsdale’s YAF chapter. “It also reminds us to cherish and fight for our freedoms and not to take them for granted.”
Students helped place 2,977 small American flags in the ground around the Hillsdale College Civil War monument between Lane Hall and Kendall Hall. The flags memorialize the 2,977 people who died in the 9/11 attacks.