Fighting For Air: South Florida Community Raises $185,000 at American Lung Association's 20th Annual Stair-Climb Fundraiser

This morning, nearly 600 lung health advocates from across South Florida, including around 300 firefighters, took part in the American Lung Association’s 20th annual Fight For Air Climb Miami, presented by Metro-Dade Firefighters IAFF Local 1403. The event raised $185,000, and counting, to support the Lung Association’s lifesaving research, programming and advocacy for the more than 2.7 million people in Florida living with lung disease. Local 1403 has served as a presenting sponsor of the Fight For Air Climb Miami since the event’s debut twenty years ago.

“For the past twenty years, the South Florida community has rallied to support our loved ones who fight for air every day,” said Dr. Mark Block, member of the Lung Association’s Southeast Regional Board and chief, Division of Thoracic Surgery at Memorial Healthcare System. “As a doctor, I am especially proud and appreciative of our collective impact. The $185,000 we’ve raised to save lives is simply inspiring.”

“Once again, members of South Florida’s Bravest have served our community by stepping up for clean air and healthy lungs,” said William McAllister IV, Metro-Dade Firefighters IAFF Local 1403 union president. “As firefighters, we know just how critical lung health and safety are. That’s why we’ve stood with the American Lung Association’s Fight For Air Climb for the past twenty years. We share a lifesaving mission.”

“Thank you to our participants, firefighters and first responders, volunteers and sponsors,” Block added. “Every step we’ve taken today gets us closer to a future free of lung cancer and lung disease.”

Funds raised from the Fight For Air Climb support the mission of the American Lung Association and its efforts to defeat lung cancer, champion clean air, improve the quality of life for those with lung disease and their families and create a tobacco-free future.  

Thank you to Metro-Dade Firefighters IAFF Local 1403 for serving as the Presenting Sponsor for the Fight For Air Climb Miami. Thank you to our health and wellness partner Memorial Cancer Institute, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital for sponsoring the Future Climber Kid Zone, Goodie Bag Sponsor Amerant Bank and Florida Power and Light for powering this year’s Jumbotron. Thank you to our local sponsors, including loanDepot park, MGM Construction Group, Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida, Economos Properties, South Florida Council of Firefighters, One Biscayne Tower, Alhambra Orchestra, Gulfstream Park, NSU Florida, Vogelzang Law and North Star Financial Planners. Thank you to our national corporate team partners, Kindred Hospitals and Raymond James.

The American Lung Association has continued admiration for all our local firefighters and emergency responders and is thankful for their continued support of the Fight For Air Climb.

For more information about the event and to support the American Lung Association mission to save lives, visit ClimbMiami.org.