Honoring Heroes, Tunnel To Towers Foundation Run Coming To Utica

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation Run and Walk is coming to Utica next month.

The Utica Roadrunners will be hosting their first 5K Run/Walk on Sunday, August 22.

The Run/Walk will start at the Utica 9/11 Memorial on the Parkway and end on Genesee Street in downtown Utica.

Stephen Siller was a FDNY Firefighter who was killed during the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

On the morning of 9/11, he had just left Squad 1’s quarters to play golf  when he heard of the attacks.

Stephen returned to the firehouse, only to discover that Squad 1 was already enroute to the WTC .He gathered all of his protective gear and headed to lower Manhattan.

When he reached the entrance of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the tunnel was closed due to the attacks so Stephen abandoned his vehicle, gathered his protective equipment and ran through the 2 mile long tunnel and up to the WTC and was killed when the south tower collapsed.

Stephen’s brother Frank started the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as a way to honor those lost helping others on 9/11.

What started as a 5k event to retrace Stephen’s steps that morning,with approximately 1,200 people,has grown to an annual even of over 35,000.

The Foundation has pledged to provide a mortgage free home to the families of firefighters, police officers and members of the military killed in the line of duty.

The Foundation has also expanded on their pledge of “Let Us Do Good” by building new, “smart”, accessible homes for military members severely disabled in service to their country.

The foundation’s goal is to build 200 new homes in 2021 alone.

For more information, organizers can be reached atutica@tunnel2towers.org or you can call Phil Trzcinski at (315) 725-7526.

Additional information can also be found at the foundation’s website t2t.org or their Facebook page Tunnel to Towers Utica as well.