9/11 Ride Honors Firefighters
A five-day bicycle ride honoring the 343 firefighters who died on September 11, 2001 starts in Boston on September 6, takes a 343-mile route through Massachusetts and Connecticut, and finishes at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
On the fourth day — Wednesday, September 9 — cyclists ride roughly 64 miles from New Haven through Shelton and Monroe to Easton, Weston, Westport, and Norwalk before ending the day in Stamford.
The “First Responder Ride for Resilience” is hosted by Livestrong, the nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of cancer survivors. Funds raised also benefit Friends of Firefighters and the Boston Fire Cancer Foundation.
Everyone in the community who would like to participate is invited to register to ride, volunteer to help staff a rest stop, donate to support first responders and their families, or come out and cheer as riders pass by.
Information about participating in any of these ways and registering can be found here.
There are no scheduled rest stops in Weston or Westport, but there is one at the Easton Fire Department on Center Road and another at the Norwalk fire station on East Avenue.
Riders will hit the road in waves, so on the 9th you can expect to see them through much of the day. A map of the entire route can be seen here.
The ride in Weston comes up Wells Hill Road from Black Rock Turnpike, turns left on Kellogg Hill Road, then goes down Lyons Plain Road and Westport’s Lyons Plains Road. In Westport, the route makes its way to a long stretch on Route 33 and another on Riverside Avenue before taking the Post Road and Strawberry Hill Avenue through Norwalk. Then it’s on to Stamford.
Raising awareness
In addition to honoring the firefighters lost on 9/11, the ride is meant to raise awareness of the occupational cancer and mental health challenges first responders continue to face.
Livestrong reports that research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health indicates firefighters are nine percent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and 14 percent more likely to die from it than the general public.
Suzanne Stone, president and CEO of Livestrong, said every stop on the tour “gives people an opportunity to honor the firefighters and first responders affected by September 11 while supporting organizations that continue to serve them.”
“We hope people will see this as a chance to come together around something that matters — honoring the heroes we lost and standing with those still fighting today.”
One organization that will be supported, Friends of Firefighters, "was born out of 9/11 with the promise that firefighters would never have to face the weight of the job alone,” said Executive Director Nancy Carbone.
“In the last 25 years,” she said, “we have lost nearly 800 members of the FDNY to cancer, and job-related cancer remains one of the greatest risks our firefighters face every single day. Whether you ride, volunteer, or donate, you’re providing hands-on support for the physical and mental toll cancer takes on our first responders.”
You can learn more about Livestrong here, and about Friends of Firefighters here.