(The Center Square) – The inaugural U.S. First Responder Ride for Resilience wrapped up Thursday afternoon in Manhattan’s Battery Park, where cyclists completed mile 343 of a five-day route stretching from Boston to Ground Zero.
A couple hundred first responders, cancer survivors and civilian supporters rode in honor of the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and to raise funds for first responders battling cancer and mental health challenges.
Among the participants was FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief and Manhattan Borough Commander John Corcoran, a 40-year veteran who served on 9/11 – though he humbly admitted he joined for only part of the ride. His reason for riding was the same thing that motivates him to go to work each day.
“The idea of helping people. We take this job as firefighters to help people. Definitely not for the pay, and definitely not for the health benefits, because firefighting is a very dangerous job,” Corcoran told The Center Square.
Corcoran and other first responders worked from Sept. 11, 2001, until May 2002 to first find and rescue survivors and then to recover those who had died.
The ride was the third of its kind, though the first in the U.S. and to Ground Zero. Organized by Friends of Firefighters — a nonprofit that provides free mental health services to FDNY firefighters — in partnership with Livestrong and the Boston Fire Cancer Foundation, the first two rides took place in Ireland.
Irish firefighters and the FDNY have a strong bond, according to Livestrong President and CEO Suzanne Stone.
“There is just a really tight Irish brotherhood with the FDNY, and so after 9/11, a lot of Irish firefighters came here to help with the cleanup, and they truly bonded,” Stone told The Center Square. “That’s how the first ride happened in Ireland.”
About 20 Irish firefighters participated in this year’s ride.
Stone was able to join the ride Thursday and recalled a conversation with a first responder she said would “stay with her.” They were talking about some of the notoriously difficult hills earlier in the ride, and Stone was empathizing.
“I was like, ‘That’s really hard,’” she said.
“Yeah, it is,” he said, “But every time I turn a pedal, I think about one step that one of my brothers was taking when he walked up the tower, and if he could walk one more step, I can pedal one more time.”
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