Two Drumheller women braved the 160-foot drop down the side of the Barclay Building in Calgary on Thursday and raised over $5,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Rope for Hope campaign.
Together Megan Shearer and Madison Colberg rappelled down the side of the office tower on July 7, joining 70 others, including Flames alumni, in Calgary’s inaugural event.
“We were both very, very nervous but we got through it,” said Shearer of their 15-storey vertical jaunt.
“I’m afraid of heights, and I don’t think Madison is, but I think it got to her as well. We were good until we got to the very top, going through the lesson (for rappelling), they had us standing on the edge. That was nerve-wracking.”
“It was pretty cool – you walk down backwards and you could see people inside working and waving at us… At one point we both turned around to see what was going on and it made us spin around – that was kind of scary. We tried to keep both feet on the building at all times.”
The two managed to raise over $5,000 in just 10 days before the rappel, helped by the generosity of the community and the friends and family who pledged funds or donated to their Canada Day bottle drive.
That far outshot their initial goal of raising the minimum $1,500 to participate in the event.
“Madison had just returned from Portugal and saw an ad at the airport. She put it on Facebook and reached out to me thinking it was something I’d be interested in. There was initially 10 of us but the others backed out because of how little time we had, so it ended up just being the two of us,” said Shearer.
Both Shearer and Colberg plan to attend the event next year.
In total, the Calgary Rope for Hope aimed to raise over $150,000 to support local wish granting efforts to children with life-threatening medical conditions.
This year, Rope for Hope is taking place across eight Canadian cities.
