More than 1,000 people are set to climb 110 stories at Arrowhead Stadium on Friday evening, retracing in miniature the vertical distance firefighters faced inside the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. Among the honorees this year is Graham Hoffman, a 29-year-old Kansas City firefighter and paramedic who was stabbed to death while working inside an ambulance in April 2025.
The climb, now in its third year at the Chiefs' home stadium, is organized by Lexi Johnson, who started the event in 2024, according to Fox 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV. Each of the more than 1,000 registered participants will carry a lanyard bearing the name of an honoree, and firefighters, police officers, and U.S. Marshals are expected to take part in full uniform or gear. After finishing all 110 flights, climbers will get to ring a bell and receive a commemorative patch, the station reports.
Hoffman, who served with the Kansas City Fire Department starting in 2022 and was stationed at Station 42, died on April 27, 2025, after being stabbed in the chest by a patient during a medical transport, according to the City of Kansas City. Investigators have said Hoffman was stabbed in the chest inside the ambulance, per the same account relayed by Fox 4. His brother, Nolan Hoffman, has spoken publicly about Graham, and organizers noted that Graham himself had completed two prior 9/11 memorial stair climbs in downtown Kansas City before his death.
A Case Still Working Through the Courts
The woman charged with first-degree murder in Hoffman's death, Shanetta Bossell, was scheduled for a psychiatric competency examination as of court filings in September 2026, as her defense plans to argue a lack of mental capacity, according to Firehouse Magazine. The case remains unresolved, and Hoodline previously reported on the defense strategy in a story headlined KC Woman Charged In Paramedic Killing.
Johnson described the emotional weight the event carries for participants. “First responders leave their families to run in when everyone else runs out,” she said, according to Fox 4's report. She added that the climb is very special to her, and stressed that every dollar raised goes to SAFE, the fund benefiting first responder families.
Where the Money Goes
Tickets to climb cost $50, while spectator tickets are $25, and organizers say tickets remain available ahead of Friday evening. The event has a fundraising goal of $100,000 this year and has already raised $83,000 through the climb, per Fox 4's reporting. Proceeds benefit the Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment Fund, known as SAFE, which was established in 2003 and operates under the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, a public safety non-profit founded in 1949 to address crime and community safety across the metro, according to the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission.
SAFE has paid benefits on 48 line-of-duty deaths and two career-ending injuries, and has distributed more than $1 million in benefits since its founding, Fox 4 reports. The fund's payout structure has grown significantly over time: SAFE has expanded its emergency payout from $3,000 per family in 2005 to $40,000 delivered within 24 to 48 hours to families of first responders killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the 16th annual downtown stair climb. SAFE's coverage extends across 13 counties in the metro, supporting families of both full-time and volunteer emergency personnel, per the Kansas City Stair Climb organization's beneficiary page.
One of Several Local 9/11 Climb Traditions
Arrowhead's climb is one of at least three separate 9/11 memorial stair climbs held around Kansas City each September. A longer-running downtown event at the 38-story Town Pavilion caps participation at exactly 343 firefighters, honoring the 343 FDNY members killed on September 11, 2001, a tradition Hoodline detailed in its coverage of that climb's 16th year. Separately, the Kansas City Royals host an annual 2,200-step 9/11 memorial climb at Kauffman Stadium in early September, pairing the tribute with Suicide Prevention Month resources for first responders and veterans.
The 110-story benchmark used at Arrowhead and other memorial climbs represents the height of the World Trade Center twin towers, honoring the 343 FDNY firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 NYPD officers and eight EMS providers who died in New York City that day. The tradition was born in Denver, where the first stair climb supporting the foundation was held in 2005, and a replicable template was created in 2010, according to FireRescue1. The climbs are structured as noncompetitive memorial walks.
For Kansas City's first responder community, Friday's event folds that national ritual into a much more immediate grief. Each step up Arrowhead's 110 stories will carry the name of someone lost, and for many climbing this year, that name will be Graham Hoffman's.
