Remembering September 11: A Tribute to Heroes with the Travis Manion Foundation's 9/11 Hero's Run

[00:00:00] Alison: Hello, hello and welcome back to the show. I wanted to do an episode today. So this episode is gonna come out on Monday, September 4th. Next Monday is September 11th, and every year around September. Gosh, if you were, and this is where I'm gonna, you can really age yourself, right, is it's, if you're of age and you're like, Forties if you're in your thirties.

[00:00:28] Alison: I think thir twenties is, is hard. 'cause we're coming up on 20 years, I believe. Is where were you when September 11th happened? And I remember very, very specifically, I was in college at the time and I was in my first apartment that was my very own. And I was getting ready to go to marine mammal biology.

[00:00:52] Alison: And my friend at the time, no, we're still friends, Karen, we're still friends, not at the time. But she called, she's like, you need to turn the TV on 'cause I don't watch TV usually in the mornings. And so I turned it on and I watched it just in horror with like, I think everybody else that was watching it the time and saw the towers falling and it was just like, Oh my God, what is happening?

[00:01:16] Alison: Right? And and so one of the pledges that I think as a nation was made around September 11th is never forget. And I think that that ties really well. So we're gonna talk just a little bit about September 11th, and then we're gonna talk about the Travis Manian Foundation. I've talked about them before.

[00:01:35] Alison: If you aren't familiar with, I'll give you a little brief rundown. And one of the. Kind of credos of. The Travis Manian Foundation is remembering, remembering those who have followed. And so they have a really big event every year around September 11th. That is the nine 11 Heroes run. And my family and I participated in that for the first time last year.

[00:02:02] Alison: That was actually our very first Travis Manian Foundation event that we attended. And since then we've attended quite a few other ones. And they're always community building. And, you know, doing something for somebody else, being of service. And I really love being a part of that kind of work and exposing my daughters to that kind of work.

[00:02:27] Alison: Right? Because I think it's really easy for kids these days to get stuck in the just not realizing. And not everybody's blessed, but we are. We are. And so I try to be really mindful of that and like, Hey, we're very lucky. I want you to know that there's, there's people that can't go to the grocery store and buy what they want.

[00:02:51] Alison: They don't, can't order their Halloween costume. Whatever they wanna get, they can't do. You know what I mean? Like, there's, there's things that, that you get. I just want you to realize that you're very, very lucky. So we try to reiterate that to our girls as often as we can, but I feel like. Having them participate in events like this is also really important.

[00:03:10] Alison: So September 11th was a horrific day for our country. It was The single Deadliest Act on US Soil Terrorist Act on US soil. And it killed 2,977 people, and they, those people were from 93 different nations. Isn't that crazy? So 2,753 people were killed in New York City. 184 people were killed at the Pentagon.

[00:03:42] Alison: And 40 people were killed on flight 93. And then Jesus, I mean, there's thousands more that were injured or have long-term health health effects. We've been hearing, you know, about the, the different lung issues and, and cancers and things like that from being down at ground zero and just the particulate matter that was in the air that went for miles, the plume of From when the towers fell was was, was pretty crazy.

[00:04:11] Alison: So it was 19 men that hijacked four planes. That was the, the cause of the whole thing and the estimated economic loss. During the first two to four weeks after the World Trade Center towers collapsed was 123 billion with a B dollars. Isn't that insane? And it took 3.1 million hours of labor. To clean up 1.8 million tons of debris at ground zero.

[00:04:46] Alison: Oh my God. And then clean up officially ended May 30th, 2002. So it was over a year of cleaning up. And now they built the new building and they have the beautiful memorial and every year they read off every single person that was killed in the, in the attack, which I think is I think is a really beautiful way to remember everybody.

[00:05:10] Alison: Right. And, and I think we do similar things with military. So there was just the date that passed of the, the 13. Men and women who were killed while they were trying to help evacuate Afghan refugees as everybody was pulling out of Afghanistan. And just again, remembering their names, saying their names.

[00:05:32] Alison: And that's one of the things with the Travis Manian Foundation, they do on Memorial Day, they honor at different cemeteries, placing a coin at the cemetery at different Service members and families can request to have, if they don't live in the area, they can request to have their service member honored.

[00:05:56] Alison: It's called the Honor Project and the girls and I participated in that this past year. Michael was there too at the at Fort Logan Cemetery is here in Colorado, near Denver. So that's there's a lot of events that happen there that we're able to, to participate in, but one of the things that they said at that event is, The first time someone dies is when their body leaves the earth and the second time, or not their body, but their soul leaves the earth and then the second time is when their name is spoken for the last time.

[00:06:27] Alison: And so part of what the Travis Manian Foundation was, is you know, again, I'm just gonna briefly go over it. So Travis Manion was a first lieutenant in the Marines. And I. On April 29th, 2007. So April 29th, every year there's always an event that is he was really into CrossFit and so there's a workout of the day or a wad that is done in memory of that.

[00:06:59] Alison: But so him and his fellow Marines were ambushed while searching a insurgent house, a suspected insurgent house in Iraq. And Travis Manion led the counter attack and he was fatally wounded by an enemy sniper while he was trying to draw fire away from his wounded teammates. And his acts allowed every member of his patrol to survive, which is pretty amazing.

[00:07:26] Alison: And then for his actions, he was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Fowler. So his family wanted to have a legacy for him, . They wanted his name to get to continue. Right. And it's kind of crazy because there was actually a friend of his, they went to high school together and they served together and the marines were, were at the Honor project this past Memorial Day.

[00:07:47] Alison: And he's like, it's so crazy to me to see his name on shirts and to see his name on hats and stuff. Like, he's like, it's just, it's unbelievable. But I think it's a really beautiful way to honor those heroes that have given their life right in the line of service and Part of what what T M F does is that's, that's their goal.

[00:08:11] Alison: They want to help veterans and family members, surviving family members of military members who were killed and give them, because I, I think that we know, and, and September is also suicide prevention month that Transitioning out of the military for a lot of our veterans is really, really hard mentally.

[00:08:36] Alison: It's, you know especially if they've been in for a really long time and depending on things that they've had going on in their life or in their career and deployments and things like that, they've seen and done a lot of things that we can't even fathom. And And for a lot of our military members transitioning out is they have a really hard time, right?

[00:09:00] Alison: They have a really hard time. They lo losing that connect. It's different for everybody, but like the connection and the service and the, you know, different things like that. And then just the struggles that a lot of 'em have with P T S D and different injuries and things like that. And So, so TMFs, one of their goals is to, is to give veterans a purpose outside of the military, and that is to make yourself of service, right?

[00:09:26] Alison: So they develop, they call 'em Spartans. So they bring veterans in and they give 'em different types of training and then they send 'em out into the community to help inspire the next generation of kids. Like just showing up and, and teaching resilience and taking care of each other and the. The motto of the Travis Manian Foundation is, if not me, then who?

[00:09:51] Alison: And that is a beautiful thing to take through your entire life. If not me, then who? If I don't. Pick up this piece of trash as I'm walking the dogs, then who's gonna do it if I don't stop and help this turtle across the street so it doesn't get run over who's gonna do it? Right? It's just something that you can take everywhere in your life, and I think that it's a really beautiful thing.

[00:10:12] Alison: The T M F or Travis Manion Foundation is a 5 0 1 C three. They're not-for-profit. And I just, I think that it's just a beautiful Organization, they're doing a lot of really good things to help build up our community and to support our veterans and and family members of those, of the fallen and the heroes Run is, again, it's just a way for you, for us as a society, as a culture, as a country, to remember those brave men and women who went running in to.

[00:10:52] Alison: The towers, the, I mean, they have no idea what, and, and again, like first responders and firefighters do it every day, right? They're going, they're going, they're running the opposite direction of everybody else, right? And and, and among those that were killed in New York were 343 firefighters. That doesn't include police.

[00:11:13] Alison: It doesn't include first responders and EMTs and things like that. So it's. You know, a way the nine 11 Heroes run is a way to honor and remember those who gave, who, who the ultimate sacrifice. And just to remind ourselves that I. Of what these, what those people did just selflessly ran into that building to help.

[00:11:36] Alison: I mean, that's, that's what first responders do. And and it's a really cool thing. So I wanted to talk about that today. Hopefully that there, there is one I will link in the show notes a link to where different runs are happening. There is one happening here in Denver. My family and I will be participating that again for the second time this year, but you can also do it virtually.

[00:12:00] Alison: So if there is not an event being held near you, you can do it virtually. Something that a lot of people like to do is in the World Trade Centers, the Twin Towers, right? That's what they were called. They each had 110 floors and 2071 steps. So if you, there isn't an event near you. Go do that, right?

[00:12:20] Alison: Go get on a stair climber, go find a set of stairs in your community somewhere, and 2071 steps. Do it. 110 floors. Make it happen. So, alright, that's it for today. I will talk to you guys again next week. Never forget