HPU Students Honor Lives Lost on 25th Anniversary of Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
High Point University students planted 2,977 American flags at Patriots Plaza on campus and ran 110 flights of stairs in remembrance of the lives lost 25 years ago during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. An eagle statue at Patriots Plaza overlooked students who planted flags around a flagpole that permanently displays a large American flag on Sept. 10, 2026.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 11, 2026 – High Point University students planted 2,977 American flags at Patriots Plaza on campus and ran 110 flights of stairs in remembrance of the lives lost 25 years ago during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Students gathered on Thursday afternoon to take part in HPU’s annual tradition of planting flags for each victim who died to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The memorial served as a reminder to faculty, staff and students to “never forget.”
Students continued their Sept. 11 tribute today with a stair run fundraiser at the Cottrell Amphitheater. Groups of students ran up and down the amphitheater’s stairs in two-hour sessions in the morning and again in the evening. HPU’s Student Government Association (SGA) will donate $20 to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation for each student who completed 110 flights of stairs, which represents the height of the World Trade Center towers in New York in 2001.
The SGA donated $28,250 to the foundation after 1,400 students completed 110 flights of stairs. Last year, the SGA donated $18,000 to the foundation after 900 students completed 110 flights of stairs.
“HPU is a university guided by the values of God, family and country, and we want to honor the 2,977 lives lost on Sept. 11 and the courage of those who responded,” said SGA President Asher Wimberly, a senior business administration major with minors in leadership and sales. “Although most of us were not yet born, we recognize today’s lasting impact and our responsibility to ensure those sacrifices are never forgotten. This tradition also gives us an opportunity to express gratitude to the first responders, military service members and their families who continue to serve and sacrifice today.”
Wimberly said Tunnel to Towers does impactful work supporting first responders, military veterans and their families and that the SGA is honored any opportunity it gets to support these heroes.
“We want every student to know that their participation makes a difference,” said Wimberly, who is from Pinehurst, North Carolina. “Connecting the stair climb to this cause allows students to take part in a meaningful campus tradition while helping provide support to these families.”
Participating in the remembrance was personal for freshman Christian Stack, whose grandfather was one of the firefighters who perished on that day.
“Where it seemed hopeless, the unwavering determination of 343 firefighters and 72 police officers saved countless more lives courageously running back in to save more,” said Stack, an engineering major from St. James, New York. “To understand that my grandpa kept running back in to save more tells me the kind of selfless man he was. Whatever I’ll do in my life could never compare to the sacrifice my grandfather made that day. I plan to continue celebrating his life and sacrifice everyday but especially today. Never forget.”
Broadcasting 9/11
Students also learned about the lasting impact of Sept. 11 from Joe Michaels, an Emmy Award-winning director who serves as HPU’s Broadcaster in Residence. He was directing the “Today” show on Sept. 11 when the attacks unfolded not far from NBC’s studios in New York.
Students in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication produced an hourlong special entitled “Broadcasting 9/11” that aired live today on the school’s YouTube channel. During the special, Michaels shared behind-the-scenes stories of how he helped lead NBC’s coverage of this historic event as it occurred 25 years ago.
Dozens of students from across campus sat inside HPU’s TV studio during the taping of the special. They listened as Michaels commented on clips from the Sept. 11 broadcast of the “Today” show and answered questions about that tragic day.
“I just think it’s important for students to not forget what happened that day. Most of the students here, almost all of them, were not born yet,” said Michaels, who serves as a professor of the practice of media production in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication. “I don’t think they understood the enormity of what happened. But also, how do you cover a special report like this behind the scenes? For most of these students who are communication majors, I think it’s really important for them to see how an event like this is done.”
To help them learn, students operated the TV cameras and worked in the production control room during the special. They decided which camera angles to use and when to cut to different clips during the special. It gave them real-world, hands-on experience on what goes into producing a special report on such a sensitive topic as Sept. 11.
Running to Remember
The official death toll of the Sept. 11 attacks was set at 2,977 people, not including the 19 terrorists. At the World Trade Center, 2,753 people died, including 343 firefighters. The death toll was 184 at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and 40 individuals died in a plane crash outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
HPU sophomore Adelaide Schultz was among the students who helped fill the grass field in Patriots Plaza with nearly 3,000 American flags. They planted the flags around a flagpole that permanently displays a large American flag.
“It’s important because I think we sometimes just glance over how many lives were actually taken,” said Schultz, SGA’s vice president of university engagement and a political science and business administration double major. “Being able to plant each flag individually really allows us to take the time to understand the gravity of each life that was lost in this tragic event. Students gathering around this American flag and taking a second to remember each individual life lost really brings back that sense of patriotism, unity and understanding of the event itself.”
The stair run serves as a reminder of the physical toil and hardship that first responders suffered on Sept. 11, said Schultz, who is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
HPU’s lacrosse team was the first to run 110 flights, starting at 6:30 a.m. today to make the team’s regular 7 a.m. practice. Other student-athletes and students of all majors took the stair challenge at 7 a.m. or later despite temperatures climbing to the 90s.
“It’s really hard and I was thinking about the firefighters who did it way back then without getting any breaks or any water, and they were wearing all that gear,” said Sumner Dowdy, a senior sales and leadership major from Kansas City, Kansas. “My brother’s a volunteer firefighter at his college, and he ran steps this morning in all of his gear. That’s so heavy and so hot.”
Daniel Pitt, a senior graphic design major, said the stair run challenged him outside his comfort zone, but he wanted to remember the sacrifice and honor the lives lost on the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
“In that same essence, the people who gave their lives on Sept. 11 pushed their mind, body and spirit farther than anybody would expect themselves to have capacity to do,” said Pitt, who is from Lexington, North Carolina. “I think it’s important to recognize their sacrifice and put in that same effort.”
HPU honors the lives lost during Sept. 11 every day on campus. Directly below the U.S. flag display in the concourse of the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center, approximately 3,000 pounds of steel originally used to construct the Twin Towers were installed in 2022 in High Point University letters, along with the letters of “God. Family. Country.” David Griffin, CEO of D.H. Griffin Company, provided the steel from the Twin Towers site after his company conducted the site restoration work.