Remembering 9/11 at Oklahoma State University with a Memorial Stair Climb

On Saturday morning, Hannah Marie Akoury began to suit up in her firefighter gear. The standard bunker gear is about 25 pounds, but when she adds on an air pack, she's carrying nearly 70 pounds.

"You get acclimated and used to the constraints of moving with it," said the Oklahoma State University Senior.

For Akoury, it's worth carrying the weight as she pursues a career in fire service.

"I wanted to be able to help people on their worst days and try to make it a little bit better," she said.

Akoury knows the bad days can be heavy, and on Saturday, she honors those who carried so much 24 years ago.

"This definitely pales in comparison to what they went through, but it's one way we can honor them," she said as she walked.

The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb is hosted by OSU's Fire Protection Society and Firefighter Combat Challenge Team, of which Akoury is a part. Inside Boone Pickens Stadium, participants climb the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs, the same height as the World Trade Center Towers.

“There’s something about being able to walk and just remember," said Quincy Ford, a member of OSU's ROTC program.

Many of the participants remember September 11th, even though most don't have the memories.

"If we can take 3 hours out of our day to remember what happened, and try to do this stair climb, which is not easy, then why not?" said Elle Yates, who is 19 years old.

They walked alongside those who were alive when thousands were killed.

"It’s important to me because I lost a lot of brothers on 9/11, and it's great that we honor them today. Coming from New York, it’s a big deal," said Jeff Paoletti, who grew up in New York and graduated from Oklahoma State in 1996.

They walked because they hope they would do what hundreds of firefighters did in those moments.

"I can only imagine what they went through with all the chaos, confusion, just trying to figure out what's going on, and on top of that, doing it in full gear because they were also likely masked up," said Akoury.

As Akoury gets closer to finishing the challenge, her legs shook and she was thirsty and tired.

"I don’t know how they did it," she said. "It's amazing."

And yet, she walked knowing what weighed on their hearts was so much heavier.