SAN ANTONIO – From the University of Texas at San Antonio football games to major music concerts, the Alamodome has been the site of many big events.
On Thursday, the Alamodome will host its first-ever stair climb, an annual event honoring first responders who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The event, officially called the San Antonio 110 9/11 Memorial Climb, has been held at the Tower of the Americas for approximately a decade.
Organizers of the stair climb say they found out in July that the Tower of the Americas would not be available for the 9/11 event. The tower is undergoing renovations. (Copyright 2024 by KSAT – All rights reserved.)
However, a news release from the organizers said the venue was unavailable this year due to ongoing renovations.
Dawn Solinski, founder and director of the San Antonio 110 9/11 Memorial Climb, told KSAT she only found out in July that the tower would not be an option now.
The Alamodome gladly stepped up and opened its doors, said Richard Oliver, the venue’s communications director.
“These are the events that make the Alamodome so special, to be able to host these kinds of community events,” Oliver said. “I think the biggest hesitation was, ‘OK, how can we approximate what (they) were doing at the Tower?’”
Each year during the tribute, participants, including first responders from all across the state, climb the stairs inside the Tower of the Americas.
Participants climb exactly 110 steps, the same number New York first responders climbed inside the World Trade Center on that day in 2001.
Now, inside the Alamodome, climbers will go up and down the rows of steps between the seats until they reach that same number.
Lyana Trejo, a 21-year-old firefighter with Bexar County Emergency Services District #11, said she has been training for months using an indoor stair climber.
“It is my first time doing the stair climb, so it’s something I have looked forward to for a very long while,” Trejo said.
Although Trejo was not born at the time of the attacks, she said she still understands the sacrifices that were made.
“I’m sure there’ll be a point when my body and legs do get tired, and I want to give up. But then I have to remember those that we lost, what they went through,” Trejo said.
Trejo said the stair climb will be unforgettable in more ways than one.
Check in for the San Antonio 110 9/11 Memorial Climb begins at 6 a.m., with opening ceremonies starting at 8 a.m.
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