Gary Reece plans to ride an elevator 31 floors to the top of a downtown building Saturday morning, step over the edge and allow himself to drop, bit by bit, 367 feet to the ground.
About 135 other people also will rappel down the side of 1600 Glen arm Place today and Saturday — to benefit Cancer League of Colorado.
The rappellers each raised at least $1,000 for the nonprofit, which will use all the money to fund cancer-research grants or to help families of cancer patients.
This is the third year the charity has sponsored Over the Edge.
“It’s one of the most invigorating things I’ve done,” said Reece, 57, Cancer League’s president.
He rappelled each of the past two years.
The first year, 35 people rappelled, and last year 105 people dropped from One Lincoln Park, collecting more than $180,000.
Reece hopes this year’s group will raise $200,000 in pledges. So far, two-thirds of that has been brought in.
Most will rappel in street clothes or gym clothes. At least one will rappel in drag. Last year, a man went down in a kilt.
Some will dedicate their roughly 10-minute descent to friends or family members who fought the disease.
Reece will rappel with Courtney Mizel, a friend who fought breast cancer and plans to rappel for the second year.
Garret Hommel, 24, will think of the father of his sister’s best friend, Steve Potts, who died of cancer this year.
Hommel recruited several other rappellers and raised more than $17,000 himself by holding an invitation-only dinner with Footers Catering, where he works as business manager.
“It was a touching experience,” Hommel said, describing how people began handing donations to him.
The Littleton resident, like other fundraisers, will arrive at least an hour early to do a practice session with staff members from Over the Edge, the Canadian company that holds rappelling events for North American nonprofits.
The shorter practice run is meant to give rappellers confidence, but for some it will do the opposite.
“You’re supposed to stand up, lean back and just walk down — not a very natural feeling,” said Quinn Washington, 30, recounting his experience from last year. “I just fell. That was the practice, pretty embarrassing.”
Washington hates heights but did the full rappel anyway, thinking the entire time that he shouldn’t look down and that he hoped his mother wouldn’t have a heart attack. (She didn’t.)
“I have no desire to jump off a building,” he said as he prepared for his rappel this year, “but if it’s for the Cancer League, I’ll do it.”
Liz Navratil: 303-954-1054 or lnavratil@denverpost.com
To sponsor, participate
Want to sponsor a rappeller or maybe take a trip down 1600 Glenarm Place yourself? Find the details at .
