Saturday morning there was a somber memorial event at the Jim Kress Lighthouse Tower in Sturgeon Bay commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The “9/11 Memorial Stair Climb” involved active participants who hiked up and down the tower stair well’s 11 floors ten times to represent the 110 floors of the World Trade Center. Beginning at 7:00 am there were speeches by Sturgeon Bay Fire Chief Tim Dietman and Sturgeon Bay Moravian Pastor Matthew Knapp before the National Anthem was sung by Southern Door Fire Chief Rich Olson. Then firefighters, EMS Personnel, and a DNR Warden in full uniform all joined the general public in conducting the stair climb. Some firefighters did the climb wearing their full gear while hiking alongside other participants. Assistant Fire Chief Kalin Montevideo further details the experience in the stairwell…..
Once each climber finished the 10 trips up and down the tower, they would ring a ceremonial bell outside and were saluted by a uniformed firefighter. Montevideo reports there were 58 participants registered for the stair climb and the memorial event went well……
There were also 2 different options for donations at the event, one for the Door County Maritime Museum and another towards the Door County Fire Chief Association to assist in their scholarship program. It was a calm sunny morning Saturday as well, quite similar to that fateful day in Washington DC and New York City 20 years earlier.
