AM Buffalo’s Emily Lampa is going “over the edge” for charity. United Way of Buffalo and Erie County and Oishei Children’s Hospital for the second year is doing a peer-to-peer fundraiser and rappelling event. She and other participants will rappel over the 20 story M&T building at One M&T Plaza this afternoon. Participants raised money from friends, family, corporations and peers to participate.
This event also takes place in other cities across the country. Todd Medeiros, from The Over the Edge team says it takes a lot of planning and training to put this event on. He says, “All of our techs are certified rope access technicians and then our office works with the client, sometimes more than a year to identify an appropriate building which starts off with using satellite photos. Then someone is sent out almost a year in advance to the property, to look at it, to ensure it is suitable to host our event, it has all the things we need and everyone can walk around it comfortable because remember rooftops on these large commercial buildings are not spaces that the architects intend for regular folks to be on and most importantly, we have nice safety railings and structural steel to attach all our systems too and on this building we are actually using the systems that are set in place for the window washing,”
When asked how they keep the people rappelling safe, Todd says the first thing they do when they register is take all their possessions away so, the keys, the cell phone, the wallets because it’s not only the people rappelling it’s the people below so if you drop something that’s a problem. He says, “Safety starts with taking aways everyone’s stuff and then they go through the first stage of the event which is called staging where you are dressed similar to what I am wearing right now, then they come up and right be behind us there will be a tripod set up where they will go through training where they learn to use this stuff that we put on.” Once the training is done, they line-up and wait for the rappelling stations to be open. They then get attached to the system by trained volunteers and then every step of the way one of their licensed Over the Edge technicians performs a safety check on them. After the safety checks are done, he says they coach them over the edge and then it is up to them and they control the ride the whole way down.
The Over The Edge fundraiser supports to groups, the Oishe Chidren’s Hospital and The United Way of Buffalo and Erie County. Michael Weiner, United Way of Buffalo and Erie County (UWBEC), says, “The important nature of this type of work, we call it peer to peer fundraising is really, doing something that is fun but also with some visibility around fundraising because the needs in our community are so great. The level of low income in our community is astronomical, over 40% of families live in financial hardship and when it comes to health disparities, if we are not addressing it, accommodating the needs of low income families in particular, that means moms and children may not be as safe and may not be as nurtured as they could be not only through the efforts of not only Children’s Hospital but the work we are supporting in the community as well.”
Mercedes asked Dr. Stephen Turkovich, chief medical officer at Oishei Children’s Hospital what it means to him when he is rappelling but to also know the reason he is doing it? Dr. Turkovich says, “It’s such an honor because what you are doing is you’re calling attention to needs of people who that often don’t have a voice in the community and that’s why I do what I do because children in particular and pregnant women in particular are often some of the most marginalized people in our society so, as those that have privilege and the ability in our leadership positions to speak for them, the more we can do, the more we can get the word out; it is so important. One of the things we think about, that many people don’t know, is Buffalo has the second highest rate of childhood poverty in the nation and we know that leads to significant health disparities, we know that the racial disparities that we have, the segregation that we have, all of that has really detrimental impact on health outcomes and so we can come together as a community and help kids right from the time they are born and help moms and families from the time they are born, we can give them an opportunity to grow and thrive.”
For more information or to make a donation go to give.overtheedge.events/otebuffalo2022
