NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The head of a well-known 9/11-related non-profit will be hitting the road to mark the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks.
The mission for Frank Siller, founder of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, has been the same since 9/11: never forget.
Now, the 68-year-old will embark on a more than 500-mile walk from Washington, D.C. to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, stopping along the way to pay tribute to first responders at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Siller will end his walk by following in the footsteps of his brother, firefighter Stephen Siller, who was off-duty when he ran through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in full FDNY gear to get to the World Trade Center, where he was killed.
"This is a way to shed a light on the sacrifice that was made 20 years ago," Siller said. "I'm doing about 15 miles a day, so it's 36 walking days."
He's been training by walking 10 to 15 miles a day.
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The walk is also about helping to raise money for the foundation, which has spent over $250 million supporting first responders, veterans and their families, and doing good.
"And we do good by paying off all these mortgages or building mortgage-free homes for Gold Star families, catastrophically injured service members, and for our fallen first responders that die in the line of duty and leave young children behind," Siller said. "Everything we do is to make sure we never forget, that is our first mission."
The Never Forget Walk will step off on Aug. 1.
It will end on Sept. 11.
The foundation was formed to honor the memory of Stephen Siller.
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