Casino rappellers help raise an anticipated $100,000 for Special Olympics

By Michele Deluca Niagara Gazette

NIAGARA FALLS — Shaunna Grimm is not going to be able to yell at her 3-year-old son, Tyler, if he starts rappelling himself out the windows of their Pendleton home.

On Thursday, his mother rappelled about 23 stories of the Seneca Niagara Casino at a fundraiser for the Special Olympics of New York.

“It was so amazing,” said Grimm, who wanted to challenge herself with the adventure in celebration of turning 30-years old earlier this week. “You could see for miles.”

The event, called “Over the Top,” was expected to raise more than $100,000, collected as pledges by volunteers for the opportunity to scale the 26-story glass building.

A team of organizers from a professional rappelling company called “Over the Top,” trussed up each of the nearly 140 volunteers and participants, two at a time, and then asked them to step over the edge of the building and lean back until the ropes tightened.

That first part was, by most accounts, the scariest part of the experience.

“Obviously you’re very nervous because they’re telling you to lean back ... and you’re body is telling you don’t do it,” laughed Police Captain John DeMarco, who collected more than $2,000 in donations for the chance to go over the edge. His rappel down was watched from below by his whole family, including his wife and kids, his brothers and their wives and even his church minister.

It must have looked like fun to his wife, Babs. “My wife said she wants to do it next year,” DeMarco said.

The event went fairly smoothly, considering that Wednesday’s “Media Day” had to be canceled due to high winds. Organizers were thrilled by Thursday’s perfect weather and called the day a great success.

“It was out of this world,” said Kim Wilson, safety manager for the casino, speaking of the rappel she took along with two other members of the casino staff — Natalie Driscoll and Mike Powers — who helped her plan the event alongside Special Olympic organizers.

Wilson said she was deeply impressed by the assistance of the community for the event.

“We had so many resources that came together,” she said, citing a list of police and fire volunteers who helped with the day including: The Niagara Falls Fire Department, the Niagara Falls, Ontario Fire Dept., the New York State Park Police, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department, the Niagara Falls Air Base, the Upper Mountain Volunteer Fire Co. of Lewiston and the Gasport Volunteer Fire Co.

Fire Capt. Dave McGovern was the first one down. His job was to test the ropes and his rappelling partner was his battalion chief, Dan Boland.

“I was the guinea pig,” laughed McGovern, who said he was surprised by how long it took to rappel the building. Rappellers controlled the speed of their descent with a hand-held device attached to their ropes and the rappellers were told to expect the rides to last from 5 to 15 minutes. McGovern raced down the side and was happy to note he beat his chief to the bottom. All rappellers landed on the third floor of the hotel where the pool area is located.

In the parking lot below, family and friends cheered and listened to music as the rappellers faced their challenge.

“How many people in the world can say they rappelled down the Seneca Niagara Casino,” Boland asked. “A very select few.”  

Among the select few was an Amherst soccer coach, Al Bluemle who was surprised by his team members and their parents with the “gift” of the rappel experience only a few hours before his descent.

The team, all teenage girls, collected the required $1,000 in pledges to thank the coach for taking them on a surprise trip to Disney World this summer.

Standing in a nice suite a group of the parents had obtained for him at the casino after a day on the golf course with them, he called the whole day “a great payback, for sure.”

Moments before he rappelled he watched a video the girls had made, announcing the surprise. While he had rappelled in places such as Costa Rica, he had never rappelled off a building before or anything as high as the casino.

Most of the rappellers will have one thing in common. They’ll never quite look at the casino in the same way as they did before.

“The next time I’m going by the hotel,” DeMarco said. “I can look up and say, I came off that roof.”

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