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Hopkins Staff Take on "110 Floors Challenge" in Honor of 9/11
On the afternoon of September 11, 2026, Dean of Students Lars Jorgensen ’82 and Associate Director of Advancement Services Dan Junkins grabbed their weighted backpacks and headed to the bottom of the Forest Road steps to take on the 110 Floors Challenge in honor of 9/11.
The challenge calls on participants to climb 2,071 steps, the equivalent of the 110 floors of the World Trade Center towers, in remembrance of the first responders who made the climb on September 11, 2001. Junkins learned about the challenge through fitness and health author Michael Easter’s Two Percent newsletter and invited Jorgensen, a fellow hiking partner, to join him.
“I immediately thought this would be a great way to honor the first responders and to reflect on the losses we all shared on that day,” Jorgensen said.
In the afternoon heat, the pair repeatedly climbed the stairs from Forest Road to the top of the Hill, carrying weighted backpacks similar to the weight firefighters carried.
“It was a little more difficult than I anticipated,” Junkins said. “Along the way, we contemplated how much more difficult it must have been for the first responders that day, wearing full fire gear and oxygen masks, not to mention what they were witnessing around them.”
As they climbed, Junkins and Jorgensen also thought back to their own memories of September 11. Junkins was working in Manhattan when the first plane struck the North Tower and remembered looking down Fifth Avenue and seeing the tower on fire. Jorgensen recalled being at Hopkins that morning.
“I reflected on how we, as a School, needed to be supportive and calm for the students and colleagues, while at the same time processing the shocking events of the day,” Jorgensen said.
Twenty-five years later, the challenge gave Jorgensen and Junkins an opportunity to mark the anniversary through action.
“It felt right to honor them in this small way on the 25th anniversary,” Junkins said.
Hopkins is a private middle school and high school for grades 7-12. Located on a campus overlooking New Haven, CT, the School takes pride in its intellectually curious students as well as its dedicated faculty and staff.
Hopkins School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.