BURKBURNETT ( KFDX/KJTL ) — For the fourth year now, first responders, police, firefighters, and military personnel gathered at Bulldog Stadium in Burkburnett for the annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in honor of those who bravely sacrificed their lives while saving others during the tragic event that will forever be etched in the minds of many of us for the rest of our lives.

Burkburnett Police Chief Donald Miller said those who participated had to do 13 full laps up and down the stands of Bulldog Stadium, which gave them just a small glimpse of what first responders endured on that horrific day in 2001.

For those who remember watching the Twin Towers in flames on live television back in 2001, almost all of them can tell you exactly where they were that day, including Kelly Daugherty, who was teaching at the time.

“I remember being there and them coming in and letting us know about the towers and stuff and us getting all the little kids together; we were teaching them the ABCs; I do remember it very close,” Daugherty said.

Something that still affects her to this day.

“We were scared; we were very scared; we were kind of in panic because we didn’t know what was going on or what was happening. We actually had parents from the base calling; they couldn’t get off the base. I mean they were stuck and they wanted us to hug their, look im getting emotional, they wanted us to hug their kids like we would our own and we did,” Daugherty said.

In all a total of 2,977 lives were claimed that day including 343 firefighters, 70 law enforcement officers and 9 EMS workers, and in honor of those heroes efforts to save lives on 9/11, the annual stair climb was created.

“The main thing is to realize the struggles that these first responders faced on that terrible day. It was difficult, it was arduous, it was chaotic and though we cannot experience the chaos, we can experience some of the efforts that were pushed through to climb that many flights of stairs,” Burk Police Chief, Donald Miller said.

Among those climbing today are Amy Andrajack and Texas Game Warden Dillan Conley, who did the climb in his full gear.

“It’s important to me because all of these people are my friends and I see how they put their lives on the line every day and it makes me think back to when I watched the TV and I saw the people putting their lives on the line and this shirt is a gentleman I workout with every day, his brothers died in 9/11 so I’m here honoring them,” Andrajack said.

“Its a yearly tradition to honor the fellow law enforcement and first responders that died that day,” Conley said.

And thanks to events like this, those who died will never be forgotten.

According to Miller, each participant climbed 2,200 steps, the equivalent of the 110 stories climbed in the World Trade Centers.

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