Rosalia woman rappels for cause

What’s it like going over the edge 20 stories up?

For Laura Buckley Lautehslager of Rosalia, it was a little scary, but she felt it was worth it. Lautenslger, who has been a volunteer with the Rosalia Fire District since 2010, was among 20 people who rappelled off the top of the Bank of America Financial Center builiding in downtown Spokane June 22.

The "over the edge" experience was offered to area residents who could raise $650 or more in pledges for the Special Olympics.

"They say $650 is about the cost it takes to get one contestant through the Special Olympics" Lautenhslager explained.

She qualified for the rappelling exercise by raising a total of $1,455 for the fund. Laura, who was raised in Colfax, took the challenge on behalf of Billy Swank of Colfax, who competes in the Special Olympics, and her uncle, Mike Shea of Colfax.

Laura is the daughter of Barney and Gerianne Buckley of Colfax. She and her husband, John, live in Rosalia with their daughter, Samantha, who will mark her second birthday July 27.

"They actually had a very good setup," Laura commented on the rappel rigging for the 20-story descent down the side of the downtown Spokane building. She noted the Special Olympics crew had a small preparation area to check out the qualifiers before each one made a descent. She believes a total rookie in rappelling could have made the drop down the side of the building without much trouble.

The 20-story drop figures out to be about the equivalent of 264 feet.

Laura learned to rappel while she was on active duty with the Army National Guard. Her first experience was at Fort Jackson, S.C.

The 264-foot drop off the downtown Spokane building followed an 80 foot descent she did last spring during resue drill practices with the fire district voluteers. That descent was made off the former Milwaukee Railroad bridge just south of Rosalia. It is now part of the John Wayne Trail.

Laura said qualifiers for the Spokane descent were allowed to reserve the time of day when they wanted to go over the edge, She was one of three people who selected 10:30 a.m.

Participants and organizers of the event were allowed entry into the building, which is normally locked up on weekends, and rode one of the elevators up to the top level. Laura noted they had to climb a couple of flights of stairs to actually get to the top level.

"It’s really quite a view from up there," she reported.

She added she didn’t feel much hesitation about stepping off the top edge and reported the 264-foot descent was very smooth.