TEMPLE, Texas — 110 flights of stairs.
That's how many the first responders at the World Trade Centers climbed on Sept. 11, 2001.
20 years later, firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and regular citizens climbed the bleachers at Wildcat Stadium in Temple. Four times up and across equals 110 flights.
“We still remember all of those who gave their lives on that day 20 years ago," Santos Soto of Temple Fire and Rescue said.
Many here in Central Texas have chosen career paths in public service and armed forces. Wylie Harrison, an active-duty member of the U.S. Army, says that Sept. 11, 2001 was the day he knew he would serve.
"My entire family served also, so this was just something I was going to do regardless but 9/11 was the icing on the cake for me," he said.
Soto felt the same way. Not originally a firefighter, that day motivated him.
"At the time, I was not a firefighter, but it was one of the things that spurred me to want to become one," Soto said.
Nearly everyone who is old enough to remember that day will never forget what happened. But as the years pass, a younger generation was not even born, or just barely old enough to remember.
“I remember where I was when everything happened, I was young, I was probably six or so," Temple firefighter Rae Cole said. "But I was in elementary school, and it shook me then. It definitely shakes me to my core now.”
She says she was encouraged by all who came out to Wildcat Stadium on Saturday and thinks it's important that everyone understand the importance of the day.
Each year on Sept. 11, despite the distance from Wildcat Stadium to New York City, the distance fades and unity ignites.
"I would just want them to remember how America came together as whole and really played as one team and supported everybody and their neighbor and everyone around them," Soto said.
