Bill Ficke didn’t believe what he had heard when he picked up the phone just after 6 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. His friend had told him a plane crashed into the World Trade Center and  tragedy started to unfold in the city he called home.

As Ficke turned on the television, he watched the second plane go into the building. 

Throughout the day, people flooded into Big Bill’s New York Pizza, located at 8243 S Holly St, to talk about the friends and relatives they knew in New York, people who worked there and worked near there. 

“There was nothing but New Yorkers in here,” said Ficke. “All they wanted to do was tell their story and listen to other people’s stories. That was all day.”

Ficke said as he looked at his employees, he knew they had to do something. 

The next week, Big Bill’s held their first event where everything sold one day, including donations, went to the fireman’s fund in New York. They raised $35,000. 

The following week, the restaurant raised an additional $33,000 for the families of the six firefighters of Squad 41 in the Bronx who died during the search effort at Ground Zero.

Ficke decided the restaurant needed to do this every year. 

“Not in a morbid way,” said Ficke. “In a way of honoring all those people who died.”

The next year, wanting to keep the funds in Denver, all the money raised went to a foster home in Denver. It was the same for the next several years. 

The one exception was when Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast in 2005. The restaurant sent half the funds to the University of New Orleans and the other half went to the foster home.

“You want to see the goodness in people, come here on 9/11,” said Ficke. “You’ll realize there’s a whole lot more good in the world.”

When Ficke’s wife, JoAnn, passed away in 2007 from a form of Lymphoma, Ficke decided the funds raised should go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Ficke said his one stipulation was the funds had to stay in Denver. 

To ensure the funds stayed in Denver, in 2009, Ficke and his son Dan, founded a nonprofit organization in JoAnn’s name, the JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation. 

Every penny raised each year goes to the JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation and then is distributed to six different cancer organizations around the city. 

These include the Cancer League of Colorado, the Brent Eley Foundation, Ray of Hope Cancer Foundation, the Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance and the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. 

On average, Big Bill’s has raised $145,000 each year, said Ficke and since the start of his nonprofit, they have raised almost $2 million. 

“What I’ve learned with 9/11 and this pandemic and everything, there is a ton of good out there,” said Ficke. “Especially in this neighborhood.”

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant brought in $60,000 on a Friday night and on Monday, they ended up with nearly $145,000 through donations that came in the mail. 

As Ficke looks forward to this day every year, he encourages people to come in, eat and donate. 

In addition, the entire staff donates their salary for the day to the foundation.

“At the end of the day, we sit down, we look at each other and say you know what, one a day a year we did something good, and that’s what it was all about,” said Ficke. 

With a large sign hanging on the side of Big Bill’s in remembrance of those impacted by 9/11 and volunteers coming together to serve, Ficke hopes they never have to stop their day of giving as he loves to see the unity. 

“The biggest thing that had happened with 9/11,” said Ficke. “It didn’t matter if you were Democrat or Republican, Black, white, green, blue - didn’t matter - all of the sudden we were together.” 

Donations can also be made at www.JBFCF.org or www.BigBillsNYPizza.com