The Over The Edge fundraiser is moving to Eastern Michigan University where participants will be able to rappel down EMU’s Hill tower 11 stories high on Sept.23 after being in Ann Arbor for the past three years.
Over the Edge is a fundraiser developed by Friends in Deed, a nonprofit assistance based in Ypsilanti. They have put on hundreds of these events across the nation. The fundraiser gives people a way to contribute to their community by fundraising for a cause. In addition, they have the opportunity to rappel down the side of a skyscraper. Rappelling is the act of descending a slope while holding onto a rope at a fixed higher point.
The fundraiser has many contributors. One of those contributors is Amtheyst Floyd. Floyd is the Development Associate for Over The Edge. Their connections to the event have professionally and personally spanned roughly three years.
“Over The Edge was originally started in Canada,” Floyd said. “The founder of Over The Edge, Paul Griffith, decided to make it a national nonprofit after the amount of success and attention it generated during that first event.”
A previous Director for Development and Communication for Friends in Deed heard about Over The Edge through the organization Grapevine and immediately took a liking to the cause.
“Her determination to bring this event to Friends In Deed has helped us raise over $340,000 since 2020, taking the Over The Edge fundraiser from local to national,” Floyd said. “It has proven to be quite an impressive endeavor.”
Nonprofits are, by definition, not in it for the money. So understandably, it could be hard to garner attention from the public. But Floyd realizes Over the Hedge has allowed Friends in Deed to garner many supporters and gain the public’s attention.
“Since we primarily focus on individual donations and grants, a large fundraiser like this helps us not only bring in large donations, but also new supporters who may not have heard us otherwise,” Floyd said. “It's all about creating a strong donor base so we can continue, and hopefully grow, in supporting our community members”.
Coming up with ideas over the course of years can be a daunting task. An extreme idea such as Over The Edge did not come from out of nowhere.
“This idea was actually thought up by the Over The Edge crew,” Floyd said. “However, we’re constantly reminding our supporters that they’re able to fundraise in support of someone else. We also understand that there are plenty of people who would rather fundraise than rappel, and just as many who would rather rappel than to fundraise”.
Friends In Deed are doing everything in their power to help people around the nation. Continuous support of them means continued support for your neighbors – familiar and foreign.
“The support and money we raise helps to contribute to the organization and its programs,” Floyd said. “We like to say that it helps keep the lights on so that we can help others do the same. More funding means we’re able to help more and increase the amount of help we are able to offer to counter rising costs of living”.
For more information, visit Friends In Deed's official website.
