Fundraising for Easter Seals

Katherine Gambin says she’s never done anything even close to this experience – stepping off the rooftop of a tall building - in her life.

The 23-year old bank employee from Placentia recently participated in the Easter Seals Drop Zone campaign, in which individuals from around the country rappel from tall buildings in their communities to raise money for Easter Seals.

Gambin says she doesn’t really know why she was drawn to this campaign other than it sounded like a lot of fun to try.

“Really, I first signed up because I thought it was a good cause,” she said. “There was no real connection to me or anything but I was drawn to it. But, when I got to the event, I met my cousin there and realized their daughter was someone who might benefit from the Easter Seals campaign.”

Gambin said she’s never done any climbing in the past, so the entire experience on Aug. 13 was new to her, but very exciting and a little nerve-wracking.

“We got some training from people from Wall-Nuts climbing centre in St. John’s, which was good, and then we were led to the roof of Atlantic Place and prepared ourselves to step off (in full safety gear of course).”

Gambin said she told her trainers she did have a slight fear of heights but she said the crew helped her by cracking a few jokes and calmly leading her to the edge, along with plenty of encouraging words.

“I stepped off the edge and went for it,” said Gambin. “My only big mistake was that at about halfway down, I looked down. That I wouldn’t recommend.”

But, said Gambin, by the time she reached the ground she was raring to go again and plans to raise money for Easter Seals again next year.

“This year I raised just over $1,500 so next year I would like to double that amount.”

Gambin said her friends could visit her Facebook page for photos of the event.

“I had a lot of fun and really want to thank my parents, my boyfriend James and the whole community here in Placentia for supporting me in this, especially my co-workers and anyone who helped or contributed in any way. I also want to thank Andrew and Kirk of Easter Seals. They were great.”

Gambin said all money raised at the event stays right here in Newfoundland and Labrador.