Redefining heroism when it may need redefined

Julie Humes is a hero in her own right, and would probably be a little blushed at me writing about her in such a way.
For those of you who don’t know Julie, she’s the organizer of the Tunnel to Towers 5K event in Donnellson each 4th of July. She's also a former air paramedic who flew in local helicopters to accident scenes to render first aid. Her husband still flies the aircrafts.
I spoke with Julie for about 20 minutes the other day about her event. Over the past four years, it has grown each year with a record of close to 400 in 2025.
In 2026 her small group of volunteers, about five, were hoping to get 500 for the fifth year and for the country’s 250th birthday. Minutes before the start of this year’s run it was announced 620 people had registered for the run.
Humes and her band of volunteers secured the largest T2T run in the state, and now she’s pushing the top half of more than 80 runs in the country. Obviously, New York City has the largest event with more than 40,000 runners in 2025.
Tunnel to Towers is a national non-profit that raises funds to help families of fallen heroes.
On September 11, 2001, New York Firefighter Stephen Gerard Siller was off duty and on his way to play golf with his brother when he heard the news of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center over his scanner. Immediately abandoning his plans, Stephen drove to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which was closed for security purposes and, as a result, strapped 60 lbs. of equipment on his back and ran on foot to the Twin Towers to assist his emergency services colleagues.
Stephen made the ultimate sacrifice and tragically lost his life during the events of that day. As a result of his heroics and admirable bravery, his family established The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which honors the sacrifice Stephen made, along with the ongoing sacrifices of military personnel, emergency services, and first responders.
I’ve spoken with Julie a couple times over the years about the annual event and I had a chance finally to meet her Saturday. She had just a few moments to say Hi to me as I climbed in a side-by-side to photograph participants in the run.
The day began with a great smelling breakfast emanating from the Donnellson Fire & Rescue building where residents sat around tables with pancakes and breakfast burritos. Then Holly Benda gave a short talk about how T2T helped put her family back on solid financial ground after she lost her husband Ted, an Iowa State Trooper out of Decorah, in a pursuit.
Tunnel to Towers took over her mortgage about two weeks later and then paid off her mortgage in the following year. Benda said that allowed her to focus on the couple's four daughters and start putting their family back together.
“Life never moves forward, it moves on,” she said.
Her words resonated with me as I watched all these people line up and take off on a 5K run, walk, ride, what have you, north of Donnellson, through a cemetery about a mile north of the city and back to downtown where bananas and cold water awaited.
Then I made the run back to Fort Madison for the annual Charlie Korschgen Kiddie Parade. Red, white, and blue garb and streamers and a lot of candy and bubbles were strewn about downtown Fort Madison as kids and adults alike moved east through downtown Fort Madison where prizes awaited at the local Moose Lodge. Andy Andrews and his band of volunteers are heroes, as well, as they continue to put kids first and push through hurdles like COVID and its lingering effect on volunteerism across the country.
With the country celebrating its 250th anniversary this weekend, we take to celebrating the semiquincentennial with barbecues, swimming, fireworks displays, cookouts, and whatnot as part of three-day weekends. It’s also a good time to reflect on some of the sacrifices that were made to get us this far, even though, in the grand scheme of things, Americans are still babies. We just had to grow up really fast. Some of us have grown up very well, and people like Julie Humes and Andy Andrews who work behind the scenes to bring something very special forward, are true heroes, as well.
Sept. 11 completely redefined the term “hero” and this is in a country that’s fought two world wars, and climbed over the backs of historical civilizations to take its place on the top of the hill by doing so. Over the past 30 years or so, that perch has become perilously precarious and it seems as though once again, we’re going to have to redefine what it means to be a hero if we want to continue to stand on that threshold, but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.