Lead Your Community.Sign Up Your Department.
Twenty-five years after 343 FDNY firefighters gave their lives, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) is inviting America to help finish their climb. Your department asks four things of itself. We supply everything else.
Sign Up My DepartmentFour Steps. That Is the Whole Commitment.
Sign Up and Name Three
Register your department, and name three other departments we should share this with. Peer to peer is how this reaches every state.
Share It in Your Community
Publish the announcement and send the community and partner emails. Every word is written for you.
Host an Event
One hour at your station or a full community gathering at a local landmark. Scale it to your department.
Post Photos and Videos
Show your community taking part. Your photos recruit the next department and feed the national picture.
Your members are welcome to climb, and many will. But climbing is not what we are asking your department to do. These four steps are.
The Fire Department Kit. Delivered the Moment You Sign Up.
- Social posts written and ready to publish, with visual direction for every one
- Community, partner, event, and thank-you emails, ready to send
- Event formats, planning checklist, and run of show
- For The 343 and NFFF logos, social templates in every size, and the campaign QR code
- Brand and approval guide covering colors, fonts, imagery, and review requirements
- A short local media note your chief can send to press
No department builds anything from scratch. You fill in your department name and your dates, and publish.
Sign Up Your Department
Three minutes. Your Fire Department Kit is delivered immediately on submit.
Your Community Will Take Part Because You Asked.
For decades, fire departments have marked September 11 on behalf of their communities. On the 25th anniversary, we are asking you to bring your community into it instead.
No institution in American life can ask a town to take part and have the town actually do it the way its fire department can. That trust was earned over generations, and this is what it was earned for.
The 343 FDNY firefighters who gave their lives that morning climbed so others could come down. Every firefighter who has made the ultimate sacrifice since deserves the same remembrance. Your department is how your community gets the chance to give it.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
Founded by Congress in 1992, the NFFF honors America’s fallen firefighters, supports their families, and works to reduce firefighter deaths and injuries through education, research, and national safety initiatives.
National Memorial Weekend
Each year in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the names of the fallen are added to the National Memorial, with travel and lodging covered so no family grieves alone.
Fire Hero Families
Peer support networks, grief programs, scholarships for spouses and children, and the Hal Bruno bereavement camps for kids of the fallen.
Prevention Nationwide
Research, training, and safety programs working to reduce the roughly 100 line-of-duty deaths the American fire service suffers every year.
What Chiefs Ask Us
What exactly is my department committing to?
Four things: sign up and name three departments, share the campaign in your community, host an event, and post photos and videos. Nothing beyond that.
Do our members have to climb?
No. Members are welcome to take part and many will, but the department’s commitment is the four steps. Climbing is the invitation your community receives, not a requirement for your department.
How much work is this for our PIO or admin staff?
Minimal. The Fire Department Kit arrives with posts written, emails drafted, event materials built, and graphics made. The work is filling in your department name and your dates, then publishing.
What counts as an event?
Anything from one hour at your station to a community gathering at a local landmark, a school bleacher climb, or a remembrance attached to an event you already had scheduled. Scale it to your department.
Why do we have to name three departments?
Because that is how this reaches every state. Peer referral is the only channel that works at fire service scale, and a chief hearing it from another chief is the reason most departments sign up.
Does this cost anything?
No. Sign-up and the kit are free. Participation is free for your community as well. Optional donations through ForThe343.org support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and its work for Fire Hero Families and the fire service.
Who runs this?
For The 343 is a National Fallen Firefighters Foundation experience.
Twenty-five years ago, 343 firefighters started up those stairs.
Whether America finishes that climb depends on whether the fire service puts the invitation in front of them.