Brotherhood Ride holds stair climb, bike ride event to honor 9/11 first responders

The country is gathering Sunday to remember the lives of nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11 21 years ago.

Brotherhood Ride is hosting the first ever 9/11 memorial climb at the Naples Grande Beach Resort. There will also be a bicycle ride and an exotic car rally so the community can come out and support the families of the 9/11 heroes.

Brotherhood Ride is made up of firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical personnel who ride bicycles to honor those who have died in the line of duty.

The stair climb is an annual tradition that takes place around the country to honor the first responders who died on 9/11.

WINK News spoke with Jeff Morse, president and founder of the Brotherhood Ride, who said a big part of this event is participating in the memorial climb.

“There’s no set number of how many stairs you have to do. For us, it’s more about remembering those first responders and the victims in the towers to come out and to celebrate what they did that day and how they made the rescues and got the people out and to pay honor to them to the guys that didn’t make it out,” said Morse.

The climb is 100 flights of stairs, but there will also be a bicycle ride that will feature a 30 and 50-mile route. After that, exotic cars will lead the bicycles back to the Naples Grande Beach Resort.

Brotherhood Ride says this is their way of giving back.

Morse said the tragedy opened the public’s eyes to what exactly first responders do in an emergency.

“When 911 happened, there was a spotlight cast on all first responders. I think that was probably the first time the public in the community got to see what every first responder would do in an emergency, we will rush into any emergency while people are rushing out. And on 9/11, the heroes from both the police and fire showed that, and it put a spotlight on what all first responders do every day out there in the streets. So, this is just a little bit I could give back to my brothers that were lost that day,” said Morse.

The actual climb began at 8:46 a.m. The time when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.