Latest / The Good Side of Sports Podcast / Tunnel to Towers: How One Hero Sparked a Movement

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Tunnel to Towers: How One Hero Sparked a Movement · The Good Side of Sports Podcast

• 0:03
  Hello and welcome to episode
• 0:07
  1 of the Good Side of Sports podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:11
  Brian Hartong, and I can't imagine a better
• 0:15
  foundation to have as our first guest than this one. Their origin story
• 0:18
  embodies the American spirit, unwavering courage in the
• 0:22
  line of duty, and then an unthinkable tragedy happens.
• 0:26
  From which something is created that has meant so much
• 0:29
  to so many. And that something is the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
• 0:33
  Today I'm joined by Mark and Greg. Mark is the event
• 0:37
  manager for the National Run and Climb Series, and Greg is the race
• 0:43
  director for the Westerville, Ohio race. Gentlemen, welcome to
• 0:47
  the program. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so before we get into all
• 0:50
  the amazing things that the foundation does, Um, I want
• 0:54
  to have Mark tell us the story about how the foundation
• 0:58
  came to be. Well, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation
• 1:02
  is a, is a unique story, as people will find out. Uh,
• 1:06
  on September 11th, 2001, uh, FDNY firefighter
• 1:10
  Stephen Siller was getting off his shift in Brooklyn firehouse, worked the
• 1:14
  overnight shift, supposed to go play golf with his brothers that day.
• 1:18
  Uh, anyone that's old enough to remember That day, remembers what
• 1:23
  a beautiful sunny morning it was for, for September.
• 1:27
  Uh, same thing was happening in, in New York. Shortly after he
• 1:30
  left the station, he heard on his radio about
• 1:34
  the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. And being a first responder,
• 1:38
  like all first responders are, the golf game's gonna get canceled.
• 1:43
  So he called his wife, said, tell my brothers I'll get back to
• 1:46
  'em later. I gotta go to work. So he, he raced back to
• 1:50
  the firehouse with, uh, in his truck.
• 1:54
  Obviously they had already responded and anybody's familiar with the
• 1:58
  New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn area
• 2:02
  knows that there's a river separating Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.
• 2:05
  So he grabbed all his gear from the firehouse,
• 2:09
  threw it in his truck, raced towards the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to
• 2:13
  make it over to World the World Trade Center. Tunnel was closed,
• 2:16
  obviously, for obvious reasons. And, uh, not willing
• 2:20
  to give up or go find another route, he pulled his
• 2:23
  truck over to the side, grabbed his gear, over 60 pounds of
• 2:27
  equipment, and made his way through the tunnel.
• 2:30
  And that's one of the longest, if not the longest tunnel in North America.
• 2:34
  The tunnel is over 2 miles long. Oh, wow. So, uh,
• 2:37
  it definitely a hike for Anybody not
• 2:41
  carrying 60 pounds of gear with them. Right. So he made his way through the
• 2:44
  tunnel, finally made it to the, uh, site of the, uh, World Trade Center.
• 2:50
  And, uh, the story is that he, he caught up with his brothers from Squad
• 2:54
  1 and, uh, that was the last he was seen. Hmm.
• 2:57
  Wow. So he lost, uh, he was a father of 5,
• 3:01
  uh, big family, young family. Um,
• 3:04
  so he was lost. At the World Trade Center while saving
• 3:08
  so many other people. That every time I hear that story
• 3:12
  or, or read it, it's just, it's just gives you chills.
• 3:15
  It's just insane. And, and we need those kinds of people
• 3:19
  though, that, that will give it all. Yes. For everyone else. And they,
• 3:23
  you know, there were so many stories that day, you know, including Stephen's,
• 3:27
  but the Siller family, uh, shortly thereafter
• 3:31
  got together and said, we have to do something. You know, we could mourn the
• 3:35
  loss like much of the country, if not all the country is going
• 3:38
  through right now and be sad, or we can
• 3:42
  turn this into something positive. And it took a, you know, one of Stephen's
• 3:45
  friends who was at this meeting to figure out what to do
• 3:49
  said, hey, I got an idea. Let's just do what he did. And they
• 3:53
  didn't know what that was. So, well, what do you mean? Let's run through the
• 3:56
  tunnel. And That's what got
• 4:00
  the wheels turning, the getting, excuse me, getting Mayor
• 4:04
  Giuliani on board to get the permits and the permissions.
• 4:08
  And remember, this was, this was just weeks after 9/11.
• 4:11
  So the first run was just weeks after the— The planning started.
• 4:15
  Okay. So they, they put everything together, got the approvals to
• 4:19
  do it, did the first run in September of '02,
• 4:22
  1,500-ish participants.
• 4:26
  Which at the time they, they were thrilled with that. Right, right. You know,
• 4:29
  that 1,500 people are coming out to honor,
• 4:32
  honor Stephen and, and do a good thing. And then,
• 4:36
  you know, every September for the next almost
• 4:40
  25 years, that run has occurred in Lower Manhattan at the
• 4:44
  end of September. What's the numbers now? Do you have an idea? So we were
• 4:47
  over 40,000 this past September. That's incredible. So we're pushing
• 4:51
  up to, to 50,000 people from, from around the world. It,
• 4:55
  it's, if not the biggest 5K in the country, it's one of the
• 4:59
  biggest. Yeah. I've never heard of any that, that large before. So that's,
• 5:02
  that's insa— that's, you're getting close to the marathon. Yeah. Numbers there. Yeah.
• 5:07
  So, and, and that's how, that's really how it started in the early
• 5:10
  days. It was a, it was an annual run in New York City, a 5K
• 5:14
  run that brought people in. Money was raised. They, they gave
• 5:18
  money to local or orphanages.
• 5:21
  Stephen lost his parents when he was 10 years old.
• 5:24
  Okay. His siblings raised him as their youngest
• 5:28
  brother, so they, their heart was to support children's
• 5:32
  homes and orphanages and burn centers and those type of things.
• 5:36
  It's funny, when I was doing some research, it didn't hit
• 5:40
  me right away, but this being the 25th anniversary, it's sort
• 5:44
  of ironic that we're doing this on that, on the 25th anniversary. So it's
• 5:48
  pretty cool. And also the, the charity, the foundation
• 5:51
  is, is highly ranked. Yes. I did some research on that.
• 5:54
  It's in the top 50 through Forbes, top 100
• 5:59
  charities. It has a 4-star rating with Charity
• 6:03
  Navigator. Charity Navigator. Yep. We, we always encourage
• 6:06
  people to, the ones that are interested in donating to us that
• 6:10
  maybe don't know a lot about us, we always say, check us out. You know,
• 6:14
  go, go look us up. We're very proud of that rating that we get from
• 6:17
  those organizations. And obviously as
• 6:21
  big as we are now, we, there's a lot of people with eyes on where
• 6:24
  the money's going and what we're doing. So we're really proud to get those type
• 6:27
  of ratings. Yeah. And I think, oh, I was trying to figure out where
• 6:31
  the rating came from, what the criteria was. And 93% of what you
• 6:36
  guys bring in goes directly to the programs from what I was seeing. So,
• 6:38
  yes, that's a good point. That's what makes us one of the highest.
• 6:43
  We have, even as much as we've grown,
• 6:46
  we've, you know, obviously we'd like that, that 93 to be even higher.
• 6:50
  Right. We do have expenses and the growth of the organization,
• 6:54
  you know, costs some money. Sure. Keep things going with
• 6:58
  all the marketing and keeping things. But I will tell you
• 7:01
  that we couldn't do it without the thousands of volunteers from
• 7:05
  across the country. Not only that come to New York that put these events
• 7:10
  on, like we're going to talk about. So it's, uh, it is really just
• 7:13
  a, an organic type situation where,
• 7:17
  you know, people are enthusiastic to join us. Right. And how long have you been
• 7:21
  with the organization? Well, I started right, uh, not too long after,
• 7:25
  uh, the first year run. Okay. So over 20 years I've
• 7:29
  been helping with the New York City run. Wow. And then, uh,
• 7:33
  I'm happy that I was able to convince a lot of my, my, my friends
• 7:37
  used to tell me when Every time they didn't look forward to me going every
• 7:41
  September because when I got back they said that's all I talked about for the
• 7:44
  next year. Right. And I, and I really did. And, and I got many of
• 7:48
  them on board that would come every year to New York. You know,
• 7:52
  it's, they became part of the family and to
• 7:56
  this day they still are. So that, that has expanded and allowed them to
• 8:00
  either put on their own runs or support one of the ones that we're doing.
• 8:04
  Huh. That's great. So Greg, you, you run the Westerville race?
• 8:08
  Not actually run it, but I, uh, coordinate. Okay, gotcha. So yeah,
• 8:12
  when, uh, back in 2018, uh, 8 years ago, um,
• 8:16
  when Eric Joring and Tony Murley were killed in line of duty for the
• 8:20
  city of Westerville, um, the foundation approached,
• 8:24
  um, the city and wanted to talk to the families and,
• 8:28
  and told us that, hey, we want
• 8:31
  to pay off their mortgages. And our first thought was, this is too good to
• 8:35
  be true. There's no way that this is possible. Uh,
• 8:38
  Fast forward, we checked into the
• 8:43
  organization and that they were legitimate and this is what they wanted
• 8:46
  to do. And then it was, hey, telling the ladies in
• 8:51
  their worst moment, hey, this is one thing that the organization
• 8:55
  wants to take off your plate. And of course, they look at us like,
• 8:58
  no way, there's no way. And there is a way.
• 9:02
  And I think, you know, Mark Um, being from Ohio,
• 9:07
  heard about the, um, the officers, Tony, Eric and
• 9:10
  Tony getting killed, and, uh, contacted the foundation.
• 9:14
  And from my perspective, I was, uh, not involved,
• 9:18
  never heard of Tunnel to Towers until, um,
• 9:21
  Frank shows up, um, with a check, um, for,
• 9:24
  for both families, um, which was super cool,
• 9:29
  um, seeing seeing that happen and then later
• 9:33
  realizing the gravity of what the foundation did, um,
• 9:37
  almost immediately both ladies wanted to pay it forward,
• 9:41
  um, and we started, uh, our first run in Westerville in 2019.
• 9:45
  So they were involved with the first run? They were involved with the first run,
• 9:48
  yes. And, uh, unfortunately with COVID shut things down,
• 9:52
  um, so we didn't have a run until 2020
• 9:58
  too. That's when I, you know, I became a— in
• 10:02
  my role as a family liaison, being the go-to person for both
• 10:06
  families. Linda Morelli approached me and said, hey,
• 10:10
  I want to do this. I want to pay it forward. But it was very
• 10:14
  important to both of them that it wasn't about Eric and Tony. It was about
• 10:18
  the good the foundation did. So we had a couple of
• 10:21
  speed bumps about how we socialize and how we
• 10:25
  advertise. You know, the community after Eric and
• 10:29
  Tony were killed in February of— February 10, 2018.
• 10:34
  I've never seen anything like that. It was one of the coolest things
• 10:38
  that I never want to see again. Going down Main Street
• 10:42
  in Westerville, literally every house had a blue porch light
• 10:47
  on. I don't know who did it to my house, but somebody
• 10:50
  took my porch lights and changed them to blue while I was at work.
• 10:55
  Nobody would fess up to it.
• 10:59
  But seeing what the Foundation
• 11:03
  did and then going to— as
• 11:07
  the family liaison to escort Linda to New York
• 11:12
  City run, she's like, I want you and your wife to come.
• 11:15
  So we did. And it blew me away.
• 11:19
  Just It's the first time I was in New York City since I was a
• 11:22
  little kid. So just the grand scale of things and
• 11:26
  then knowing what it takes to organize an event,
• 11:30
  let alone an event that size. And the Foundation does it
• 11:34
  right. They treat the families like they are their family and then staff
• 11:38
  and volunteers. I know I have family in
• 11:43
  the Ohio, Kentucky area that I
• 11:47
  can call upon and they'll come and help me with our race. They'll be there.
• 11:49
  I've gone to Nelsonville to help them with their race, uh, going up
• 11:53
  to Medina. Um, any, anytime we can, we can help each other out, we,
• 11:56
  we do that. You, you'd have to really— you,
• 12:01
  in order for, I think, an organization to be as successful as this one,
• 12:03
  you'd have to, you have to care. You, it can't just be a,
• 12:07
  a job. You have to really be invested in, I think, in the,
• 12:11
  in the cause and And care about the people that you're dealing with in,
• 12:14
  in their worst, their worst possible moments. And, and one of the things
• 12:18
  that, that really stands out to me, especially in the last, uh, maybe 10 years
• 12:22
  with the foundation, is so many young people have joined us
• 12:26
  at the foundation, uh, as staff members and stuff.
• 12:29
  Okay. And to see their passion and their involvement and believing,
• 12:34
  believing in what we do, what the mission is, is amazing
• 12:37
  because many of them weren't born yet. On 9/11. That's true. But they fully
• 12:41
  understand, uh, obviously many of them have families that
• 12:45
  are first responders or military, which that's part
• 12:49
  of their reason for wanting to join the team. But it's, it's very,
• 12:52
  uh, as we, we're at 25 years, it's very important to
• 12:56
  the foundation to keep the, uh, education process going. And that's one of the,
• 13:00
  one of the legs of the foundation too, is the education leg. Yes. We have
• 13:04
  the, uh, 9/11 Institute. That, uh, people can go online
• 13:07
  and, and read about. A component of that is our mobile
• 13:11
  exhibit, which is a traveling,
• 13:14
  like traveling 9/11 museum. Okay. It goes all over the country and it's
• 13:18
  staffed by, uh, FDNY firefighters that,
• 13:21
  uh, that were there on 9/11. Hmm. And they get to tell their stories
• 13:25
  and talk to school groups, general public that comes in
• 13:29
  to, to look at it. It's very everywhere. It,
• 13:31
  it's booked up solid for, for like forever. Everybody wants
• 13:36
  to bring it to their city. Right. Is there a schedule like that is posted
• 13:39
  so you know where it's going to be? Yeah, you could go to our t2t.org
• 13:43
  website and look, look up the schedule on there. Uh, while we're
• 13:46
  on this topic, I will say our, this year, 25th anniversary,
• 13:50
  we're going to have a, uh, piece of World Trade Center steel that
• 13:54
  will be traveling the whole United States, uh, from coast to coast and
• 13:59
  back again and arrive back in New York City on 9/11. I saw that.
• 14:03
  There's a graphic on your website that has the route. It looks like it goes
• 14:07
  all the way around the country. Yes. That's— so we're real excited
• 14:11
  about that. Much of that is still in the planning stages, but if people
• 14:14
  would look at the website, they'll get an up-to-date schedule of where it will be
• 14:19
  stopping. Okay. Along with that, I know there's
• 14:22
  several programs besides the educational piece. There's a
• 14:26
  smart home and then the Fallen first responder program
• 14:31
  as well? So our key programs, or our programs,
• 14:35
  they're all key programs. Our programs cover
• 14:38
  the Smart Home Program, which those are specially adapted
• 14:42
  homes for catastrophically injured service
• 14:46
  members and first responders. The homes are modified
• 14:50
  for each person's needs. And the goal of
• 14:54
  that is to restore their independence and give them You
• 14:59
  know, many of them are living in a place that's kind of tough for them
• 15:02
  to live and navigate and get their family
• 15:06
  into a home that was designed for their needs was a big focus
• 15:11
  of what we do. Also, we have our Gold Star Family
• 15:16
  Home Program. Okay. Obviously those are family members
• 15:19
  that lost someone in the line of duty in the military.
• 15:24
  Similar to our Fallen First Responder Home Program, which are
• 15:27
  first responders who were lost in the line of duty.
• 15:31
  And then we have our Homeless Veterans Program that
• 15:37
  now provides support,
• 15:40
  different types of housing services for our veterans
• 15:44
  around the country. And that's our newest program, started in 2022.
• 15:49
  So, It's, uh, probably the fastest
• 15:52
  growing part of the foundation at this point. Okay. We have, uh, facilities opening
• 15:56
  up around the country that will provide not only housing,
• 16:00
  but, uh, a range of services for our military
• 16:04
  service members and veterans. It looks like a lot of the programs,
• 16:08
  um, have the children in mind too. Yes. So if they lose
• 16:13
  a, a family member, they're taken care of for sure. So it seems like that's
• 16:16
  a really important part. That is one of the key parts of our Gold Star
• 16:19
  family and the fallen first responder home program that the
• 16:23
  person has left behind, obviously children,
• 16:27
  younger children. So we definitely,
• 16:31
  as you said, we will take them into our program
• 16:35
  and they stay with us. We always say that once you
• 16:39
  join us, you're part of the family. And it's always comforting when I
• 16:43
  talk to family members that have been with us for a number of years.
• 16:46
  They always remind me that you guys were, you guys really do
• 16:49
  that. Yeah. You know, my kids get birthday cards from you guys, you know,
• 16:53
  years later, graduation presents, things like that.
• 16:57
  And, you know, now that we're in the thousands of people
• 17:01
  that we've supported, it was pretty easy when it was, you know,
• 17:04
  50. Right, right. But we have an awesome staff
• 17:08
  at Staten Island that, you know, that's their job is to the
• 17:12
  liaison with all these families and, and that's helped them out. Staten Island's
• 17:16
  where the headquarters is? Yes, we're based at Staten Island.
• 17:20
  Okay. Uh, which is where the Siller family lived. And, uh,
• 17:24
  they literally started up from there, uh,
• 17:27
  working out of a small office in the, in the early days when it was
• 17:31
  a New York City run. Um, there's, there's a
• 17:34
  story that we had a lady that helped us out like part-time.
• 17:38
  She's like, she's employee number 1. We laugh about that.
• 17:41
  Okay. So she, she was eventually put on because we were starting
• 17:45
  to grow. We needed somebody to answer the telephone and to look at the mail
• 17:49
  and things like that. And they, they brought her in part-time
• 17:53
  and it was a number of years before there was any full-time employees.
• 17:59
  As far as the Westerfield race goes, how many, what's the number
• 18:03
  of participants usually at like Since the last— since '22, I guess,
• 18:06
  when you guys ramped back up again? So I think we're at $487,000
• 18:12
  last year. I would love to get to $650,000
• 18:15
  or so. It's not— it's not for me. It's not about raising money for the
• 18:19
  foundation. It's about the education awareness and how it started
• 18:24
  with Stephen. And, you know, we're one of a
• 18:27
  few races that actually gets to run through an active firehouse. Oh,
• 18:31
  wow. The city of Westerville has graciously allowed us to run
• 18:36
  through Station 111 on Main Street, and through
• 18:39
  First Responders Park, which is right next door,
• 18:43
  that also has a piece of the World Trade Center
• 18:47
  displayed there as well. Tom Ullem,
• 18:50
  retired Westerville firefighter now, was one that coordinated
• 18:54
  those efforts. And he's got a great story for that. I'm not going to discredit—
• 18:58
  take, take, try to try to say, tell the story from his
• 19:01
  perspective. But having that piece there, and then having the,
• 19:05
  you know, running through Station 111, 11 the bays. They have the fire trucks out.
• 19:09
  Uh, last year we had bagpipes playing as they, they came through,
• 19:13
  um, and it was super cool, um, very emotional,
• 19:17
  trying to bring that connection back
• 19:22
  to New York, kind of what we saw as participants, um,
• 19:26
  to Westerville. And there were several people that had family members
• 19:30
  or friends who died
• 19:34
  at, you know, in the towers, that they came and were very emotional that
• 19:38
  they got to come and see this and see a part of it. And there
• 19:41
  was a lady that, um, the piece of steel that's in
• 19:45
  Westerville was very close to where her, her, um,
• 19:49
  family member's office was. So it was getting to take her
• 19:52
  to see that. She had no idea it was even there until she saw about
• 19:56
  this run. I'll definitely I run, so I'll definitely be signing
• 20:00
  up here as soon as we get off the, get off this, uh, interview here
• 20:04
  for sure. 'Cause, uh, it seems like it, it's, it's a great, it's so just
• 20:07
  a great, yeah, we, we encourage to kind of follow up with, with what Greg
• 20:11
  just said. Uh, you know, we, we want to have the Tunnel
• 20:15
  of the Towers Foundation in as many communities as we can, and this is
• 20:19
  the best way to do that. People come out to these events,
• 20:23
  many of them aren't really sure unless they've run one before, what their, if it's
• 20:27
  their first time. It is so rewarding to talk to them at the finish
• 20:30
  line and ask 'em how it was. Yeah. Most of them are speechless
• 20:35
  because the, the whole, all the emotions kick in.
• 20:38
  And a lot of 'em are hardcore runners, like marathon runners that
• 20:41
  run through the tunnel in New York will tell you afterwards, that's the hardest,
• 20:45
  hardest run I've ever done. Yeah. So how many events
• 20:50
  are in Ohio this year? Well, we added a 4th one, so we have 4,
• 20:53
  or in Ohio. I'm proud to say that. Where are, where are they located?
• 20:57
  Nelsonville's our first run in, in April. Okay.
• 21:00
  Westerville is in May after that. And then we have the
• 21:04
  other, then in the summer we have our new run in Lyndhurst, which is east
• 21:08
  of Cleveland. And then Medina closes out the year in September.
• 21:12
  Okay. So Medina, this will be our 13th year and we're
• 21:16
  pushing 1,200 participants. Wow. So that's, we've gotten to watch that
• 21:20
  grow from a couple hundred in year one. So all of these events grow
• 21:25
  every year. You know, it's, it's nice to see that,
• 21:28
  that there's that support out there. So you, so as far as your,
• 21:31
  your role is the Climb Series as well, is that,
• 21:35
  what does that entail? Yes. Glad you mentioned that because
• 21:40
  many of our cities around the country do climbs,
• 21:44
  whether it be in a stair climb in a building or stadium climb in
• 21:48
  a, in a large stadium. That is to, to, uh,
• 21:52
  follow up on the signature climb in New York City that happens
• 21:56
  at the beginning of June where they climb to the top of One
• 22:00
  World Trade Center. Oh, wow. Freedom Tower. Okay. So that,
• 22:04
  that is a separate event. It literally sells out
• 22:07
  within, within an hour after it opens up because we, we limit
• 22:11
  how many people can do that. And, uh, the same people come
• 22:14
  back year after year to do that climb. So to follow up on that,
• 22:18
  we do climbs. Around the country, we have more 5Ks than
• 22:21
  climbs, but we're starting to see the climbs become
• 22:26
  more popular as well. I saw there's also,
• 22:29
  you guys do golf outings as well. We have a golf division,
• 22:34
  so to speak, that Tunnel to Towers Golf that
• 22:37
  does golf events that
• 22:41
  also is growing every year. We have 2 celebrity golf
• 22:45
  outings. Okay. For the people that want to
• 22:48
  come in and donate a lot of money to us and play some golf.
• 22:52
  We're happy to see that continue to evolve.
• 22:56
  So it's a very, we have a lot of what we call third-party
• 22:59
  events, people that'll put on a barbecue or
• 23:03
  a Jeeps are becoming real popular. We have a big Jeep event now
• 23:07
  in Ohio. Okay. That's done by a third party and they
• 23:11
  raise Obviously all the money they raise is for Tunnel of Towers as well.
• 23:15
  So what's, do you have an idea of how much you've
• 23:19
  raised in total since its inception?
• 23:22
  In Ohio, we've raised over $14 million. Wow. Based on
• 23:26
  our last financials. Okay. But we're probably
• 23:30
  looking at a billion dollars raised since the beginning of
• 23:34
  the foundation in various capacities. That's incredible.
• 23:38
  How many, how many states? Have events? We have,
• 23:41
  that was a tough one because we're growing all the time.
• 23:44
  We're not in all 50 states. So there, go look at our map. If you're
• 23:48
  in one of those states and want to help us out, we'd love to help
• 23:51
  you put on an event there. We're probably in 40 out of the 50 states.
• 23:54
  Okay. Which is pretty good. Yeah. If you go to t2trun.org,
• 23:59
  you'll see the map pop up there of all the, as new events
• 24:04
  open or registration opens, they'll pop up on that map. So as we get
• 24:07
  further into the year, it's interesting to look at that.
• 24:11
  Um, to see where the, where the events are. Probably that, uh, the, uh,
• 24:15
  trip around the country will help awareness too with the, the part of the
• 24:19
  Trade Center, uh, mobile. So that, I think that'll increase awareness
• 24:23
  for sure. Very much so. Okay. Um, so as far
• 24:27
  as, uh,
• 24:31
  your role, what, what it, what all, like, because eventually
• 24:35
  I'm thinking about maybe Like everyone probably wants to put on a race or
• 24:39
  something like that. What's all involved in, in being a director? Like,
• 24:44
  so I had planned events in, in my full-time
• 24:48
  job role, but I've never planned a
• 24:51
  run and all of the logistics. So it's, you know, getting volunteers to,
• 24:57
  to be along the course as course directors, getting donations
• 25:02
  or purchasing refreshments.
• 25:04
  We've had a lot of really good sponsors. City Barbecue in Westerville.
• 25:09
  I didn't think that City Barbecue would be a popular post-race
• 25:14
  brunch item, but it was, it was very popular and they've
• 25:18
  supported us every year and are going to support us again this year coming up.
• 25:23
  So just coordinating all of the good that comes towards you.
• 25:26
  Mark makes my job easy with some of the connections
• 25:30
  with the vendors such as, you know, the the timing company.
• 25:35
  And yes, this is a run and there are people that
• 25:38
  run it and compete. But like Mark said earlier,
• 25:42
  the people that just come and walk or just to be a part of it,
• 25:46
  reflecting on whatever their memories are of their
• 25:50
  first responder, their person in the military or of 9/11,
• 25:55
  you can see the reflection there. And it's almost like a sense
• 25:59
  of relief that they did something for somebody that
• 26:03
  they know, that they knew, or, or is currently serving or is
• 26:07
  currently deployed. Just a way to support
• 26:10
  the organization that is almost like an insurance
• 26:14
  policy that you don't have to pay, pay for. And hopefully we never have
• 26:18
  to use it. But knowing that organization
• 26:22
  like Tunnel to Towers is out there is comforting to
• 26:25
  many. It seems like it's great. It's gaining traction all the time
• 26:29
  because now you're hearing more and more about it. Like you'll have celebrity endorsements
• 26:34
  and stuff like that. Like you'll see a commercial or whatever with
• 26:38
  a celebrity talking about Tunnels to Towers and stuff like that. And then do you
• 26:41
  guys do very much with the, the New York City Marathon?
• 26:45
  We actually have a team that's embedded in the marathon,
• 26:48
  so to speak, Tunnel to Towers team. And we're actually in
• 26:52
  several marathons around the world.
• 26:55
  So the way that works, if, if you're not a marathon runner,
• 26:59
  you can come in under our name if you raise a certain dollar amount
• 27:03
  for us. Okay. Basically, we'll, we'll get you into the New York
• 27:07
  Marathon if, if you say I'm going to raise the money
• 27:10
  that's, that's required. What's, do you have an idea what that is? I, I don't
• 27:14
  know those numbers actually. That's a different part of our staff. Gotcha. It's the Endurance
• 27:18
  Series. If you look at our website, okay, it'll list the different
• 27:22
  half marathons and marathons that, that we work with. I know that Chicago,
• 27:25
  I think is $3,000, but I think New York is is a higher dollar amount.
• 27:29
  I have a, a buddy of mine that runs marathons and he says that New
• 27:32
  York is, is very difficult to get into. Yes. Um, so that,
• 27:35
  that may be a way to, that, that would, that's been the success. I think
• 27:39
  that's probably our biggest group of marathoners are at that run. But that,
• 27:43
  that's the key to our success because the people that really want to get in
• 27:46
  and, uh, but I'm not sure if they still do it as a
• 27:50
  lottery. You just have to sign up and hope they draw your number. Right.
• 27:53
  Uh, They sign up under us and kind of guaranteed a slot.
• 27:56
  Okay. Okay. Um, so as far
• 28:00
  as the, the leadership group goes, how, like you started out, you said employee number
• 28:04
  1. Do you have an idea how many employees you
• 28:08
  have now? Not, not volunteers, but employees?
• 28:11
  Yeah, it's over 400. I can say that. Okay. So, um, and many
• 28:15
  of those were hired in the last couple years to work with our veterans,
• 28:19
  uh, homeless veteran group. So that's been
• 28:23
  the biggest part of our growth. So what do
• 28:27
  you, what would you say your biggest event is as far as raising
• 28:30
  funds or just attendance? I guess the, probably the main race,
• 28:34
  our signature run is the New York City 5K.
• 28:37
  Okay. And then as far as fundraising, I mean, we do a big gala
• 28:42
  every year in New York City for our bigger sponsors that come,
• 28:45
  big donors that come to that. To, to thank them and
• 28:48
  honor, and honor them every year. Like I said, it's a way to say
• 28:52
  thank you to our, our donors around the country. And that's in New York,
• 28:56
  to New York City. Okay. Okay. Usually in December around the holidays.
• 29:00
  And I did want to mention, people may have seen the commercials, the $11
• 29:04
  a month program, which was sort of a phenomenal
• 29:09
  idea when it, when we started it for $11 a month.
• 29:13
  And you just click, give us your credit card information.
• 29:16
  And our thought was, people aren't going to really
• 29:20
  miss $11 a month. Sure. Like they said when it
• 29:24
  started, skip Starbucks. Is that right?
• 29:26
  One day and you could give the $11 to us.
• 29:30
  And it is continuing to grow. And honestly,
• 29:34
  that's the future of the foundation because that's guaranteed
• 29:38
  steady income. Without doing fundraisers.
• 29:42
  So that, that's a dollar amount that we see coming in every month.
• 29:46
  And what was, how do you get involved with that? You can just go to
• 29:49
  t2t.org and sign up. You can make a one-time donation or you can do monthly
• 29:53
  and it can be any amount. We use the 11 because
• 29:57
  it was sort of a, sort of a marketing thing. Okay.
• 30:00
  Because 9/11, you know, $11 isn't a lot of money.
• 30:04
  It's interesting to see other other people coming up with different dollar amounts
• 30:09
  to try to do the same thing. But we're really proud to have been doing
• 30:12
  that for a number of years now and see the growth of that. So T2T.org
• 30:17
  is, that's where you go and all the stuff that we're talking about is going
• 30:20
  to be on there. And you could find out every, everything that we've talked about
• 30:24
  here and then some. It's very, and it's very up-to-date
• 30:28
  information too. So it's T, the number 2, T2T.org.
• 30:31
  Okay. Uh, we're pretty easy to find. And that'll be like
• 30:35
  the race schedule and all that stuff will be on there as well. So if
• 30:38
  anybody wanted to get involved, you could find that on there. Yeah. All of our,
• 30:40
  all of our runs. And, and I will mention of the 80-some
• 30:44
  runs around the country and climbs, those only appear on there as registration
• 30:49
  opens. So we tell people to, you know, if you're looking for something in September
• 30:53
  or October, it may not be posted yet. Okay. Because I, when I was going
• 30:57
  through, I'm thinking, I know there's more than this. Out there, but it makes sense
• 31:01
  then that they're not on there until they do become open. Yeah. About every 2
• 31:04
  weeks we roll out another batch of them. So, okay. Okay.
• 31:08
  But registration is open for Westerville and I would love to challenge,
• 31:11
  uh, Central Ohio Law Enforcement and, uh, Fire.
• 31:15
  Um, let's make it a friendly competition. Let's see which agency can have
• 31:19
  either the most participants or raise the most money.
• 31:22
  Um, I have to give it up to the, the, the Westerville Fire Union.
• 31:25
  Um, I went, asked the local IAFF
• 31:30
  to support the race that was running through their fire station. And their
• 31:34
  first question is how much money the cops give. And their donation was
• 31:38
  a dollar more because they weren't going to lose, right? So,
• 31:42
  you know, that's the only competition that I'm looking forward to.
• 31:46
  Not the race competition as far as who can do
• 31:49
  the run the fastest, but whoever can bring the most awareness to
• 31:54
  the Tunnel to Tower Foundation and the, the good
• 31:58
  that they're doing throughout the entire United States, even right here
• 32:01
  in Westerville. Do you, I, I was just thinking about the,
• 32:05
  the brochure for your race. There's a picture of a fireman
• 32:08
  running in full gear. Do you have a lot of guys that do that,
• 32:11
  the races that way? I was, I was just going to mention that for
• 32:15
  people that aren't familiar with what, what our runs look like and haven't seen any
• 32:19
  of the pictures, Many, not all of them, but many of
• 32:23
  the firefighters will wear their gear. And that's in honor of not only
• 32:27
  Stephen Siller, but all the firefighters that responded on 9/11.
• 32:32
  And that sort of came from our New York City run.
• 32:35
  First couple years in New York, there was nobody wearing anything but shorts
• 32:39
  and t-shirts. Okay. And somewhere along the line,
• 32:42
  some firefighters got the idea they were going to, and then As Greg
• 32:46
  said, that's a very competitive profession. Mm-hmm. So when
• 32:50
  one group did it, the next group decided, well, we, we better
• 32:54
  step up and do that. And then over the years, now we have, uh,
• 32:56
  law enforcement has joined that. Uh,
• 33:00
  if they don't have like tactical gear, like, or that type of thing, they'll wear
• 33:04
  their duty uniform. Okay. And run. And it's, uh, look through our,
• 33:07
  go, go online. You can look through all our pictures. It's a very,
• 33:11
  and that, that really attracts the,
• 33:14
  It gains the support of the community too. You know, you'll hear people that
• 33:18
  are families will bring their kids out. Mm-hmm. They, they, they love seeing the firemen
• 33:22
  and police officers running and getting to meet them.
• 33:25
  So, you know, every one of our events is designed to be, uh,
• 33:29
  bring the community together for a good cause and, uh,
• 33:32
  support what we do as well. I, uh, I saw one thing is called a
• 33:36
  343. Um, what was, what's the significance of that? The 343
• 33:41
  was the number of FDNY firefighters that died on 9/11. Oh,
• 33:45
  gotcha. Which is kind of a build into the, into the history books.
• 33:49
  Um, so we use that in a lot of our— the— there's different
• 33:53
  runs that'll give a 343 cup. There's a 343
• 33:57
  helmet that's given away to, to, uh, big fundraising,
• 34:01
  uh, donors, things like that. Okay. In honor of
• 34:05
  the 343. But I, I, I, I do need to point out though, since in
• 34:09
  the last 25 years there's been More than that,
• 34:13
  more firefighters than that have been lost to cancer and 9/11-related
• 34:17
  illnesses, which is, that's another group of people that we support at
• 34:21
  the foundation because we consider that a line of duty death. Even though
• 34:25
  they've, many of those heroes have come to help us as
• 34:29
  a foundation over the years, right? With our exhibit and stuff have
• 34:33
  developed illnesses and we've lost them over the years as
• 34:36
  well. So it's, It's, uh, very important people remember that.
• 34:40
  Right. And that concludes our podcast. Thank you for joining.
• 34:43
  Tune in next time when I bring you another great foundation with a great cause.
• 34:47
  And remember, show your good side out there,