The Troy community remembered 9/11 by climbing flights of stairs in the Vet
Forty flights of stairs and thousands of steps brought students together with one purpose: to remember those who watched the skyline fall and honor those who lost their lives beneath it.
Every year, Troy University holds a stair climb inside Veterans Memorial Stadium in honor and remembrance of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks.
For many participating students, the events of September 11, 2001 happened before they were born. However, connections through military service, first responders and family members continue to shape how some students relate to that day.
Taylor Legnetto, an Army ROTC recruiting officer and a junior political science major from Columbus, Georgia, said her connection to the military began at home. Her father was serving in the Army when the attacks occurred, and Legnetto said her father influenced her own decision to serve.
“I saw the sacrifices he made; he was willing to put his life on the line for our country, and I want to do the same,” Legnetto said.
As Legnetto continued to climb, she began to question why she was there, but the answer became clear as she looked at her fellow climbers.
“Once you reach the 20th flight of steps, you really start questioning why you’re doing this, and then you look out and see all of the people, and you kind of remember why,” Legnetto said.
Behind many of those steps were bridges that brought participants to the memorial — personal connections to an attack most of the students were not alive to witness. For Mary Hargrove, a sophomore exercise physiology major from Pike Road, Alabama, that connection came through her mother, who Hargrove said was serving in Afghanistan when the attacks occurred.
“I think [remembering] is important because they stood up for our country, and they served us in a way that they did not have to continuously go into that building,” Hargrove said. “It just shows that we should stand up for others and that we should continue to support this, even though it was 25 years ago and half of us weren’t alive when that happened.”
When asked how students could continue that remembrance beyond the stair climb, Hargrove pointed to Troy's willingness to pay homage through places such as Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“With us having Veterans Memorial Stadium and it being named after veterans and things like that, we can definitely use our platform to help bring awareness to it,” Hargrove said.
Patrick Stell, a freshman geomatics and land surveying major from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, participated through Air Force ROTC and brought a family connection to first responders. His uncle served as a firefighter and participates in a similar stair-climb memorial each year.
As Stell climbed the stadium stairs, he said the physical effort made him think about the individual people who lost their lives. For him, remembering Sept. 11 also means remembering how the country responded in the years that followed.
“America rebuilt from it, America developed from it and got stronger after,” Stell said. “Through every dark time, through every struggle, they can always overcome because we’re together as a nation and together as a people.”
Twenty-five years after the attacks, the passage of time also presents a challenge for memorial events as more participants have no personal memory of Sept. 11.
Legnetto said keeping the stair climb focused on remembrance begins with making sure participants understand why they are climbing. For her, remembering those details helps distinguish the stair climb from any other annual event.
“We start asking, ‘Was anyone alive during it, and who wasn’t alive, but who’s been affected by it,’” Legnetto said. “Really remembering the numbers and what exactly happened during that time in the beginning, so we know why we’re doing this.”
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