“For the 343 gives every American a way to honor the 343 FDNY firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001, and all who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Join an Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb near you, honor from anywhere and share it with the Digital Twin Towers, or support the families of the fallen through the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Twenty-five years later, we finish the climb together.”
The One-Pager · if you read nothing else, read this
For the 343 is a national movement for the 25th anniversary of September 11, in support of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. There are three ways your community participates. Find a Climb Near Me: the Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbs, the events your service built, remain the gold standard. Honor Anywhere: anyone who cannot attend can share a memory, climb a flight of stairs, walk or run 3.43 or 9.11 miles, or thank your station, and share it with the Digital Twin Towers from any phone, no app, no data collected, under a minute. Donate: support the families of the fallen through the NFFF.
On September 11, we climb for the 343. Every day since, we climb for all who have made the ultimate sacrifice, including your department’s own.
Try it yourself
Scan the code below. Place the towers in your bay. It takes one minute, and you’ll understand the whole campaign.
Brief your crews
Read the 90-second roll-call script (Section 3) at shift change. Add the names of your own fallen.
Launch it to your town
Pick your size in the Playbook (Section 4): a poster in the bay window, a community climb, or the whole town, in the name of the 343 and your own.
xr.sugarxr.com/p/forthe343]
Scan to experience it now
Or visit xr.sugarxr.com/p/forthe343 on any phone. Campaign home: sugarxr.com/forthe343
Why Your Department
Because your community trusts you more than anyone. When the firehouse says “this matters,” the town listens, the school principal, the chamber, the paper, the parents. This campaign travels on that trust, and it goes nowhere without you.
Because this is your tradition. The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb began with five Colorado firefighters ascending 110 flights in full gear in a Denver stairwell in 2005. By 2008 every climber carried the name and photograph of one of the 343. In 2010 the founders partnered with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and today climbs are held in more than forty states. For the 343 doesn’t replace that tradition, it grew from it, and it extends it to every member of your community, including the ones who could never attend a physical climb.
Because the 343 are not the only names you carry. The American fire service loses roughly 100 firefighters in the line of duty every year, on average, two per state, every year. Every state, every community has its own heroes. The 343 are the reason the nation climbs; your own fallen are the reason your town will. This campaign’s founding line, “and all who have made the ultimate sacrifice”, was written for them, and Section 5 of this kit exists to put their names at the center of your participation.
Because the loss didn’t end that morning. In the months after the attacks, thousands worked on the rescue and recovery in toxic debris. Many more firefighters have since died of World Trade Center related illness, tragically a number that continues to grow. This movement honors them all.
Because every tribute supports Fire Hero Families. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, founded by Congress in 1992, hosts the families of the fallen at the National Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, runs peer support and scholarships and bereavement camps for their children, and works to prevent future line-of-duty deaths. If your department has lost a member, you may know this work firsthand. Their names stand on the same National Memorial as the 343.
“343 climbed for us. So did our own. This September, we climb for them.”
For the 343 is promoted in partnership with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. [FINAL PARTNERSHIP LANGUAGE PER NFFF]
How It Works · Crew Brief
Three ways to participate, and your crews can brief all three in one breath:
- Find a Climb Near Me: the Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbs are the gold standard. If your department hosts or attends one, this campaign drives your community to it. Directory: firehero.org.
- Honor Anywhere: for everyone who can’t attend, one flexible option: share a memory, climb a flight of stairs, walk or run 3.43 or 9.11 miles, thank a firefighter, challenge three others. Whatever they do, they share it with the Digital Twin Towers from any phone. No app, no data collected, under a minute. Use it at: www.ForThe343.org/Honor
- Donate: give to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (501(c)(3), tax deductible), supporting Fire Hero Families. #ForThe343
The Roll-Call Script · 90 seconds, read as written
“Before assignments, one thing worth ninety seconds.
This September marks twenty-five years since 9/11. Three hundred forty-three FDNY firefighters climbed into the towers that morning and didn’t come home. For twenty years, firefighters have honored them by climbing, 110 stories, one climber for each of the 343, carrying their names.
This year it’s a full national movement called For the 343, and there are three ways in. The official memorial climbs are still the real thing, and ours is at [EVENT / NEAREST CLIMB]. Anybody who can’t be there can honor from anywhere: climb a flight, walk 3.43 miles, share a memory, and share it with the Digital Twin Towers from their phone. No app. And anyone can give to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, the people who take care of firefighter families after the worst day.
And it’s not only for the 343. [IF APPLICABLE: “Today we also climb for NAME(S), RANK(S), end of watch DATE(S), who gave everything for this community.”]
The code’s on the board. Takes a minute. Do it on shift today, and challenge three people when you’re done.
That’s it. Assignments.”
Timing: ~90 seconds. Post the QR poster (Section 7) on the board before briefing.
The Department Playbook · pick your size
Print the QR poster with your dedication line filled in (Section 5) and put it in the bay window. Publish the pre-written announce post (Section 7) from the department page. Crews participate on shift. Done, your department is officially part of the movement.
A community climb at the station, school stairs, stadium steps, or bleachers, run it like an open house: apparatus out front, QR banner up, crews climbing alongside the public.
The department as hub: bring in the schools (a class climbs its own stairwell), city hall (proclamation template available, includes your town’s fallen by name), the chamber, houses of worship, and local media (the pre-written newspaper article in Section 7 runs with your department’s name in it). Every partner gets the same QR; every tribute carries your town’s dedication.
When to run it
The anniversary window, the week of September 11, is the national peak. But the kit works year-round: probationary classes, Fire Prevention Week, station anniversaries, and your own line-of-duty-death anniversaries and department memorial days, when climbing for your own carries its fullest meaning.
Honor Your Own
The nation lost 343 in one morning. The fire service loses roughly 100 more every year, two per state, on average, year after year. Your community has its own names, its own empty seats, its own end-of-watch dates. This section puts them at the center of your participation, where they belong.
The Dedication Block
Every material in this kit, posters, social posts, event scripts, letters, proclamations, carries this fill-in panel:
and in memory of [NAME, RANK], end of watch [DATE].”
Remember, placed at home
The Remember experience lets you set the towers of light over ground that matters: your department’s memorial, your fallen member’s station, the street they served. Encourage crews and families to place the tribute there, and share it. That image, over your ground, is your community’s version of this movement.
The Emmitsburg connection
If your fallen are honored on the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland, say so in your materials: “Their name stands in Emmitsburg alongside the 343.” If your department has suffered a recent loss not yet added, the NFFF’s process and family programs are at firehero.org, this kit’s authors and the Foundation stand ready to help.
Care guidance, read before naming anyone
- Family first: always coordinate with the family before naming a fallen member in public materials. Their blessing is the permission that matters.
- Recent losses: for losses within the past year, use the gentler form, “and in memory of our own”, unless the family asks for the name.
- When in doubt: your chaplain, or the NFFF’s Local Assistance State Team network, can advise.
- No hierarchy of loss: the 343 and your own are honored in one breath, one movement, every name. Never ranked, never compared.
Verify every name, rank, and end-of-watch date with department records before print. These details deserve the same exactness as the number 343 itself.
Safety & Good Order
You don’t need safety advice from a kit, but your community participants do, and putting it in writing protects your event.
- It is never a race. Say it at the start of every event. Participants climb what they can, at their own pace, 110 stories in a stairwell or twelve steps at home. All of it counts. All of it honors.
- Public participants: hydration available; encourage rest at landings; stairs one at a time; children accompanied; anyone with a medical concern participates by remembering or supporting instead of climbing.
- Turnout gear climbs are a department choice, conducted under your own SOPs and rehab practices, exactly as you’d run any training evolution.
- Phones on stairs: capture at landings, not mid-flight. In the AR experience, the on-screen guidance says it plainly: watch your surroundings.
- Liability posture: the digital experience collects no personal data and keeps no photos or videos. Physical events run under your department’s normal community-event procedures and permissions, this campaign adds no new requirements.
Promotion Pack · everything pre-made
Print files and editable versions download from the For Fire Departments page: [LANDING PAGE URL]. Every item carries your Dedication Block.
QR Posters
Three sizes, bay window (24×36), letter (8.5×11), and banner, each with the campaign artwork, your dedication line, and the QR. [PRINT FILES IN PRODUCTION]
Social posts · copy, fill, publish
This September marks 25 years since 343 FDNY firefighters climbed into history. [DEPARTMENT] is joining For the 343, a national tribute you can take part in from any phone, in under a minute. Join the official climb near you, or honor from anywhere: a flight of stairs, 3.43 miles, a memory shared with the Digital Twin Towers. Support the families of the fallen. We climb for the 343, and in memory of [NAME(S)], our own. Scan the code or visit sugarxr.com/forthe343. #ForThe343
Today, [TOWN] climbs. Every step honors the journey the 343 made on September 11, 2001, and honors our own: [NAME(S), END OF WATCH]. Join us from wherever you are, any stairs count, every tribute matters. sugarxr.com/forthe343 #ForThe343
[TOWN], thank you. Today you climbed, remembered, and gave for the 343 and for our own. Every tribute supports the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the families of the fallen. We will never forget. #ForThe343
For your local paper
A ready-to-publish 425-word article, “A New Way for [TOWN] to Honor the 343″, is in the campaign Press Kit (Article 1), built to run with your department’s name and your own fallen honored. Send it to your paper’s editor with one sentence: “Free for publication; photos available.”
Letters · school, mayor, chamber
Dear [NAME], This September marks 25 years since September 11, 2001, when 343 New York City firefighters gave their lives so others could live. [DEPARTMENT] is bringing a national tribute, For the 343, to our community, a way for every resident, student, and family to take part from any phone in under a minute, honoring the 343 and [TOWN]‘s own fallen firefighters. We’d be honored to have [SCHOOL / THE CITY / THE CHAMBER] join us…
Radio / event PA · 30 seconds
“Twenty-five years ago, 343 firefighters climbed into the World Trade Center to save others, and never came home. This September, [DEPARTMENT] invites all of [TOWN] to honor them, and our own. Join the official climb, or honor from anywhere with any phone. One minute. No app. Visit sugar-x-r-dot-com-slash-for-the-3-4-3, or scan the code at the firehouse. For the 343, and for our own. We finish the climb together.”
Honoring Well · tone guidance
- The register is solemn and participatory, never gamified. No leaderboards, no competitions, no prizes. Participation is the point; the counter counts tributes, not winners.
- Names and photographs of the 343 appear only through NFFF coordination with Fire Hero Families. Names of your own fallen appear only with family blessing (Section 5).
- The physical climbs come first. Always point your community to the real stairwells: firehero.org/events/9-11-stair-climbs. This campaign feeds those events, it never competes with them.
- Marks: your department logo may appear alongside the campaign artwork on posters; campaign and NFFF marks are never altered, recolored, or combined into new logos.
Questions Your Station Will Actually Get
The Ask, Restated
“For the 343 gives every American a way to honor the 343 FDNY firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001, and all who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Join an Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb near you, honor from anywhere and share it with the Digital Twin Towers, or support the families of the fallen through the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Twenty-five years later, we finish the climb together.”
Try it yourself
One minute, any phone.
Brief your crews
90 seconds at roll call.
Launch your town
Poster, moment, or movement.
xr.sugarxr.com/p/forthe343]
Start now
sugarxr.com/forthe343 · Support & downloads: [SUPPORT EMAIL · LANDING PAGE URL]
“343 climbed for us. So did our own. This September, [YOUR DEPARTMENT] climbs for them.”