Tucson honoring fallen heroes 22 years later

Over 1,000 Tucsonans are registered to participate in this year’s 9/11 “Never Forgotten” Memorial Tower Challenge on Monday, Sept. 11, at Tucson Arena.

The Tower Challenge is organized every year by the 9/11 Tower Challenge Foundation. The first challenge took place in the fire well of 5151 E. Broadway Boulevard on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. A small group of Tucson SWAT officers and firefighters were concerned about the recognition of the attacks fading so they organized a climb.

“It’s just a personal thing. They just wanted to do it for their own private honor for the fallen,” said Ben Buehler-Garcia, the foundation’s vice president. “Then word sort of started to spread and they had more and more people wanting to jump on board.”

Buehler-Garcia said the foundation’s mission is to memorialize the first responders who ran toward danger and gave their lives, as well as to honor the military families who carried the burden of the global war on terror. The point of the challenge is not necessarily to finish, but to do however many steps you can, there is even the option of doing five circuits on a flat course.

“Folks can only do 20, 100 or 200. Whatever it is, we encourage them to do that,” Buehler-Garcia said.

The tower challenge is 2,071 steps, equivalent to the 110 floors in each of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. To honor the fallen in this way is a serious commitment.

Buehler-Garcia said many first responders do the challenge in full gear, such as firefighters and explosive ordnance disposal officers. One year, they even received a photo of a Phoenix canine officer doing the challenge while carrying his dog on his shoulders, Buehler-Garcia said.

Everyone who registers for the challenge receives a lanyard with the photo and name of one of the fallen. The participants wear this lanyard around their neck and climb in honor of that person. When they finish the climb, they return to the floor where they ring a fire bell three times and read off the fallen’s name.

In the past, photos of the fallen from both the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon lined the climb route. The first year they did this, the foundation team noticed some of the pictures were going missing. Finally, they realized that people had picked up the pictures and were carrying them with them. From this, the lanyards came to be.

“They say a person dies twice — the day you actually die and the day that people stop saying your name,” Buehler-Garcia said. “Our goal is that these names continue to be said and remembered every year.”

As the once-small group steadily expanded over the first few years, it was decided to make everything official and the foundation was incorporated in 2016. That makes this the seventh year the foundation has been organizing the challenge as an official nonprofit. Since the 9/11 Tower Challenge Foundation sealed the deal, there are affiliated events in Phoenix and Flagstaff as well as the option to join the climb virtually.

For those who are registered for the challenge, doors open at 5 a.m. and the opening ceremonies begin at 7 a.m. Registration for this year’s challenge is closed and the event is not open to the general public so those who are not registered cannot attend the event.

However, Buehler-Garcia said those who feel compelled to participate should either donate to the nonprofit or attend the pre-event on Sept. 10 at the Fox Tucson Theatre. The pre-event is headlined by 20-year-law-enforcement-veteran, Vinnie Montez. There will also be a silent auction and performances by two bands: The County Line, a country group composed entirely of former or current military and law enforcement members; and The Dedmond Band, fronted by Joleen Dedmond, Air Force reservist and 2012 winner of the Air Force Worldwide Talent Competition. The silent auction starts at 5 p.m. and the show begins at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $20 online at foxtucson.com and donations can be made on the foundation’s website, 911TowerChallengeFoundation.org.

All proceeds from the Tower Challenge and the pre-event go to military and first responder charities in Southern Arizona. Buehler-Garcia said so far, the foundation has raised $400,000. The recipients have not yet been selected, but some recipients in the past have been the 100 Club of Arizona, Boulder Crest Retreat, Base Camp for Veterans, First Sergeant’s Council of Davis-Monthan and Tucson Community Cares Foundation.

“It’s interesting to me the further we get away from the actual event, the more it seems to be fading in people’s consciousness,” Buehler-Garcia said. "And so that’s becoming an increasing challenge, but that also reinforces our commitment to the mission. Because the further we get away from that actual date, the more important it is that we educate those next generations.”

To attract more young people to be conscious of the memorialization of 9/11, they’ve added an oath of enlistment, so young people can choose to go down to the floor and take the oath to join the military in front of over 1,000 climbers.

“I never served in the military. I never wore a badge, which is why I consider it my duty to support those who do,” Buehler-Garcia said. “Most of us will never know, most families don’t have to worry about whether their spouse is actually going to come home when they leave the house that morning. And these people are out here making that sacrifice for us every single day.”