As Nancy McConnell rappelled down the 18 stories of CityPlace Tower on Saturday morning, she tried not to look down. Instead, she kept her eyes straight ahead or focused on her right forearm, where four names were written in black ink: Malia, Andra, Hannah and Kelly.
Those women, she said, all died of overdoses. “And those are just the girls I know,” she said.
But it’s the women she continues to help at Dignity House, a sober living facility for women, cheering for her from the parking garage that she said gave her the strength to make it all the way down.
McConnell was one of about 60 people who rappelled down the side of CityPlace Tower to raise money and awareness about addiction for the Shatterproof Challenge, with the help of the nonprofit event planner Over the Edge, on Saturday. Shatterproof is a national organization focused on ending addiction through education, empowerment, and assisting families, educators and others.
One of the first participants who made their way down the tower's side said she had been paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident.
Another woman in her 80s said she called one of the event participants and told her the story of her son’s overdose because she had read about the participant's experience with addiction. The octogenarian said it was the first time she had told anyone about her son’s death.
McConnell said she spent more than 30 years addicted to heroin in a “prison of my own making,”and was in and out of sober homes and treatment centers for a good portion of her life. She said she was given a thousand chances, and now five years sober, this latest chance is to help the women in the sober home. So in the bigger picture, she said, rappelling off the side of a building wasn’t too difficult.
“I’ve done a lot of risky things in my life,” the 51-year-old said, laughing. “Now I’m doing it for something good.”
Those who rappelled down, with their shoes covered in hospital scrubs to protect the windows and the building, had to raise at least $1,000 to participate in the event. Since the organization’s birth two years ago, they’ve completed 17 rappelling events and have more scheduled throughout the year, said Nancy Palo, the organization's national vice president for community empowerment.
Palo said they chose South Florida as one of their stopping points this year because of the large recovery communities. But even with its size, people in the area and families of those with the addictions aren’t talking about it.
“Addiction is a disease,”she said. “We’re trying to change the conversation and end the stigma.”
In 2013, more than 80 percent of the 43,982 overdose deaths in the United States were unintentional, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 1999 through 2013, drug overdoses have doubled, and more than half of those overdoses in 2013 were caused by prescription drugs, according to the CDC.
Though Palo was never addicted herself, she said she was surrounded by addiction growing up and did everything in her power not to go down the same path. At every event they host across the country, she said there’s some story that gets to her.
“There’s rarely a day I don’t cry or I’m moved to tears,” she said about hearing the stories.
“For so many years, addiction has been anonymous and we are pulling it out and getting people to tell their stories and more people see there are more people like them and they can get the help they need,” Palo said.
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