Hobart Firefighter Lt. Brian DeGrauwe was just a young teen on 9/11, but the events that day led to his decision to become a firefighter.
“It definitely was an influential moment in my life,” DeGrauwe said.
DeGrauwe, along with fellow firefighters and police officers, was at Chicago Health & Fitness in Hobart on Thursday to pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on 9/11.
Firefighters and police, all wearing their uniforms and carrying their standard gear, took turns working out on the stair climb, walking the equivalent of 110 floors.
Nearby Pipe Major Craig Brooks played songs, including Amazing Grace, on his bagpipes.
“It’s a very special day,” said Mario Daklala, Chicago Health & Fitness gym owner.
In Porter County, Valparaiso police and firefighters held a similar event honoring 9/11 heroes in a memorial stair climb.
“On the anniversary of one of the most tragic days in our nation’s history, members of the Valparaiso Police Department joined with the Valparaiso Fire Department and the Porter County Sheriff’s Department to participate in a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb,” E.J. Hall, captain of support services for the Valparaiso Police Department, said in a news release.
He said the event honors the 343 firefighters, 60 law enforcement officers and hundreds of other emergency personnel who courageously climbed the World Trade towers in the face of unimaginable danger. Each step taken during the climb serves as a tribute to their heroism and sacrifice.
“Our participation in this climb is more than a gesture — it is a promise to never forget the lives lost and the bravery shown by those who ran toward danger when others were fleeing,” Valparaiso Police Department Chief Andrew McIntyre said in the release.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners as part of a coordinated attack; Two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon. The fourth plane, which the hijackers intended to fly into the U.S. Capitol or the White House, crashed in a rural field in Pennsylvania while the passengers tried to regain control of the plane from the terrorists. It’s commemorated at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Daklala said he has been hosting the 9/11 remembrance in Hobart for some nine years.
Firefighters, police, first responders and National Guard officers from around the area are invited to take part in the Hobart-based event, Daklala said.
He said both 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 have significant importance for him because he was living in Boston — where two of the airliners originated from — when both occurred.
“Every year it hits home,” Daklala said.
He credits Hobart Police Sgt. Brandon Kissee who talked to him about holding an event honoring 9/11 and he agreed.
Kissee, now 37, was in eighth grade on 9/11, and he, like DeGrauwe, was inspired by events of the day to pursue a career in public service.
While taking part in the event, Kissee said he wears all his police gear, much in the same way as those who responded to events on 9/11.
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“I try and stay with my original gear as much as possible. It’s about truth and originality and envisioning the victims,” Kissee said.
Similarly, firefighters, like DeGrauwe, don their full gear, which adds an extra 65-80 pounds.
“Just to remember their sacrifice they made,” DeGrauwe said.
Mayor Josh Huddlestun, who tackled the stair climb at the event, called firefighters, police and first responders “the true heroes.”
“This (taking part) is a small token of my appreciation of these guys who walk into a burning building to save lives. These are the true heroes,” Huddlestun said.
Brooks, who has taken part in the event for the past nine years by playing his bagpipes, said the tradition was born many years ago in the United States when many Irish-Americans took firefighting jobs.
And, due to the dangers of the job, many of those firefighters lost their lives.
“The bagpipe playing tradition has carried on,” Brooks said.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.