On Saturday, September 12, thousands of firefighters, families, and neighbors climbed the steps of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, not for a race time, and not for a finish-line photo. They climbed the equivalent of 110 stories, the height of the fallen World Trade Center towers, carrying the names of the 343 FDNY firefighters who never came home.
This year marked 25 years since September 11, 2001, and the 14th annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb co-hosted by the Green Bay Metro Fire Department and Pierce Manufacturing. Proceeds support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
FireTech Experience Center Manager Peter Walkowiak was there with Team HiViz. He walked for Firefighter John G. Chipura.
A yearly climb like this is a reminder of why the work matters. Not the catalog. Not the booth. The reason any of us showed up in the first place.
Who we walked for
John G. Chipura was 39. Friends called him Chip. He stood 6-foot-7, 270 pounds, the kind of man a eulogist later said it “took a very big building to end.”
He grew up on Staten Island, earned Eagle Scout, and never really left the troop. He was still an assistant scoutmaster when he died. After Tottenville High School he enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving as a field radio operator with the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit. On October 23, 1983, he survived the barracks bombing in Beirut. He did not sit that one out. He went back in to pull people out.
Twelve years as an NYPD officer and detective followed, 72nd Precinct, Brooklyn South Narcotics, a gold shield. In 1998 he followed his father, Anthony, into the FDNY. His brother Gerard was already in the job. Chip wanted the firehouse. He wanted the work of helping people without making a speech about it.
On the morning of September 11 he reported to Engine 219 in Brooklyn for the day tour and was detailed to Ladder 105, housed in the same quarters. His sister Nancy worked on the 69th floor of the North Tower. He tried to reach her. He called his fiancée, Gina DeFalco. They were six weeks from their wedding.
Ladder 105 parked near the Marriott and West Street. Witnesses last saw Chip helping evacuate civilians from the South Tower. Every firefighter from Ladder 105 who responded to the Trade Center that morning was killed. His remains were identified in the spring of 2002. He is buried at Long Island National Cemetery.
He had already lived through one terrorist attack in uniform. He ran toward the second one.
In 2000, a year before the towers fell, Chip said something his family still puts on the foundation that carries his name:
“We should never forget, and we should always be available to help out a fellow brother.”
That is the man whose badge Peter carried up the steps of Lambeau.
What the climb asks of you
This is not a timed event. Climbers receive an honor badge with the name and photograph of a fallen FDNY firefighter and, step by step, finish a journey that man never got to finish.
At the mark that equals the 78th floor, the highest floor any firefighter is known to have reached inside the towers, climbers ring a fire bell and say the name out loud.
John G. Chipura. Engine 219.
Then they keep climbing.
Twenty-five years on, a lot of the people on those stairs were not alive on September 11, or were too young to remember it. That is part of why the climb exists. Memory is a discipline. If the fire service does not tell these stories by name, they flatten into a number: 343. Chip was not a number. Neither were the other 342.
Why this is our business
HiViz was founded by a firefighter. More than half the team has direct ties to the job. Peter’s post in Appleton puts him a short drive from Lambeau and from the departments that fill those stairs every September.
We build lights so crews can see the work in front of them and so the public can see them coming. That is the job on a Tuesday night wreck or a Saturday structure fire. The Lambeau climb is the same job, just pointed at memory: stay visible. Do not let the names go dark.
When Peter walked for John Chipura, Team HiViz was not making a product statement. We were doing what Chip asked of the rest of us in 2000. Remember. Be available. Help a brother.
Never forget.
Learn more about John G. Chipura
- Voices Center Living Memorial
- National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Roll of Honor
- John G. Chipura Foundation — still running the annual Staten Island blood drive and supporting FDNY families
About the climb The Pierce Manufacturing 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb is held each September at Lambeau Field in Green Bay and benefits the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
