Amy Rusak may use a scooter to get around, but that won’t stop her from rappelling down the side of 14-storey Maplecrest Towers in August.
“I’m doing it to prove to everybody that I can do it. It’s also for a great cause. I’ll be doing it dressed in a superhero costume, my own superhero created,” Rusak said Wednesday, at the launch of Thunder Bay’s second annual Drop Zone event in support of Easter Seals.
“I will be the Barrier Breaker, destroying both physical and attitudinal barriers wherever I go; to accessibility and beyond!”
Rusak, who watched last year’s inaugural event from the safety of the ground, said her friends have told her she’s crazy, but she doesn’t care. It’s a cause she believes in wholeheartedly.
“I said, yes, I am crazy, but I’m doing it anyway, now pledge me. My goal is $1,500, but anything above that is awesome.”
The event, which raised $40,000 in 2012, is scheduled to take place on Aug. 16. Participants are being asked to raise a minimum of $1,500, an amount that will earn the privilege of scaling down the second highest building in the city.
Rhonda Harrison, a senior development officer with Easter Seals Ontario, called it a unique opportunity amongst the hundreds of fundraisers that take place each year in Thunder Bay.
“You get an opportunity to rappel 14 storeys, right in the middle of town. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Harrison said.
Money raised will be used to support a wide variety of efforts within the city, Harrison added.
“We depend on the support from the community. We don’t get any outside funding. So we do need fundraising events such as Drop Zone throughout the year to offer financial assistance to families of children with physical disabilities,” she said.
“So we help them purchase equipment for mobility and communication devices. We help them pay for walkers and wheelchairs. We also have a summer camp and we also offer services that there aren’t any other funding sources for.”
Honorary chairman Claudio Foresta, who will be taking the challenge alongside brother Danny of CKPR Radio fame, has stepped up to the plate with some tasty incentives.
A $500 pledge total earns an appetizer gift card at Kelsey’s Restaurant, $750 gets a $20 gift card and anyone hitting the $1,500 mark will be entered into a draw to win dinner for a year, valued at $600. Anyone collecting $1,500 will also be entered into an Ontario-wide draw to win a trip for two to anywhere in North America, courtesy of Air Canada.
“Raising $1,500, I think, is the easy part,” Foresta said. “It’s getting over the fact you have to rappel 14 storeys, which is the exciting part.”
To register, visit www.thedropzone.ca.
