Over the Edge
Mayor Allen Brown of Texarkana, Ark., goes Over The Edge Saturday morning at Texas A&M University-Texarkana in support of Alzheimer’s Alliance, a local Alzheimer’s support organization.
Alzheimer’s Alliance Tri-State Area asked the question “How far would you go to help someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia?” Saturday morning on the campus of Texas A&M University-Texarkana. That turned out to be 60 feet straight down as rappellers donned safety gear and gripped ropes to raise money for the agency as crowds waited below.
The first two to go that morning were the mayors of Texarkana, Texas, Bob Bruggeman, and Texarkana, Arkansas, Allen Brown. As they were assigned the appropriate equipment, they both sought to sooth any jitters, as neither had rappelled before. The fact that this was for a good cause helped.
“I’m not scared of heights,” Brown said. “But I do respect them. I’ve been in deer stands, but they generally aren’t this high. However, Alzheimer’s is horrible, and anything we can do locally to help out. It is good for community leaders and members to rally around and support an event like this.”
“I’m not too afraid of heights,” Bruggeman said. “This is for a great cause and I’m looking forward to going down.”
Both mayors ascended to the building in question on the A & M Texarkana campus and received further instruction from Over The Edge experts — their efforts aided by athletes from the A&M’s baseball team. The Twin Cities’ mayors executed near flawless descents.
“It was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it, once I got started, I was fine, that first step is the tough one,” Bruggeman said.
“It was a rush, you’ve just got to get over that first step,” Brown said.
“This is the second year of Over The Edge and we couldn’t wait to do it again in this beautiful location,” said Terrie Arnold, executive director of Alzheimer’s Alliance Tri-State Area. “Last year was a huge success and we raised a little over $44,000 this year. We hope to exceed that this year. The community has a better idea of the event so we expected even more rappellers this year. Those who want to help but didn’t want to go over the edge, we had the Chicken Coop. That’s where I will be, by the way.”
“I’m not scared of heights, but I do respect them.” —Mayor Allen Brown,
Texarkana, Ark.