Ticats fan Andrew Nielsen rappelled down a building for great cause

As he was hoisted up over the six-foot wall on the roof of a 17-storey building, Andrew Nielsen finally looked down and saw what was below.

There were two squeals, maybe equal parts bewilderment and adrenalin before he was lowered down. His orange helmet eventually inched its way out of sight, with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats flag that he proudly flies from the back of his wheelchair waving those of us at the top goodbye.

No matter how safe — Nielsen’s chair was secured at at least four points and he wore a harness that covered up his Superman costume but ensured he’d be OK on his rappel — or how noble the cause — he fundraised $2000 for Easter Seals over the last month — it’s always unnerving to watch someone go against the rules that keep us alive on a day to day basis.

“Well, I’m gonna barf,” said Todd Stephens, Nielsen’s best friend of 30 years, as he watched him begin his descent.

Andrew’s father, Ole, offered words of encouragement before they went up in the elevator together. “He’s always been a daredevil,” he said, then started to laugh. “He’ll do these things whether you’re here or not, so you might as well watch.”

On Thursday afternoon, Andrew was slowly lowered in his chair all the way down the CREIT Building on Church and Bloor in downtown Toronto. Dozens of people took part in Drop Zone Toronto, having fundraised a minimum of $1500 for Easter Seals for children and youth with physical disabilities. No reception was as warm or as big as the one Andrew got.

“You crazy nut!” Stephens yelled over and over at his friend, whose face lit up with the applause. He looked at the crowd around him, took in his accomplishment and yelled, the same way that C.J. Gable — he loved watching C.J. Gable with the Ticats — might when he bursts into the end zone.

The yell was the most animated that Andrew can get. He has Cerebral Palsy and can’t speak. He communicates through a computer that’s attached to his wheelchair and through a number system that’s spread out on a tray in front of him. He signals with his eyes and looks up for a yes. Thursday morning, a couple hours before he’d get in that elevator and go to the top of the building, about the only thing that took his mind off of the challenge in front of him was the mention of his favourite football team. That always brought him immediately back to the present and put a quick smile on his face.

“I am not really nervous. I am really EXCITED! Mike Filer and my Ticat brothers think I’m crazy for doing this,” he told me through Twitter DM earlier in the day.

As his dad says, Andrew has always been something of a daredevil and through their long friendship, Stephens has been his partner in adrenalin-junkie crime.

“They’ve gone to all kinds of places,” Ole said. “They’ve been involved in some of the rides that I’m not even so keen on at the Ex. This, this is really the most (extreme thing) that he’s done.”

“He’s wanted to do a lot of things and sometimes people (say no),” Stephens said. “We’ve tried to go white water rafting and they said no. He wanted to do this and we found a way to do it. He wants to jump out of an airplane and we’re going to look at that. But that’s Andrew: He tries to find a way to do it.”

Beyond the rush of just doing it, the cause hit home for him.

“I used to be a camper at an Easter Seals camp until I was 19,” his DM said. “I met my best friend Todd there 30 years ago. He told me about it. I am a bit of a daredevil.

“I want to give back to Easter Seals and help kids like me realize their dreams.”

The two hit it off right away at the camp.

“We had a thing where we’d talk across the room with his numbers,” Todd said, remembering how Andrew would laugh so hard sometimes that he’d spit up.

“It’s his mischievous nature. His sense of fun. We share a love of sports. We joke around a lot and we look more at what he can do than focus on what he can’t do. All the way along I’ve been helping him push his boundaries. He leads me in a way and says, ‘This is what I want to try,’ and to me it was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let’s see what we can do.’”

Kevin Collins, the president and CEO of Easter Seals Ontario, was through-the-roof ecstatic for Andrew.

“Our whole focus is allowing these individuals to do what everybody else would get a chance to do. This is very much outside of the norm,” he said. “There aren’t many people that are confident enough to do that, whether they’re able bodied or not.

“It’s just another small step to show with the support that we get for the people that are raising the funds today what can be accomplished. It’s amazing, it really is.”

Ole can’t believe some of the things that Andrew wants to try, but he’s not surprised by it anymore.

“It’s hard to explain but it’s just that to Andrew it was never a matter of maybe. It’s something right down from his grandfather too. It was never a matter of I can’t do this. It’s a matter of how am I going to get around things to do this?”

Ole said Andrew always wanted to be outside as a kid and involved in things in his own way. If dad was mowing the lawn or doing yard work, Andrew wanted a shovel in his hand. When the family built him a sidecar to ride next to a bike, Andrew couldn’t get enough of it.

“It wasn’t quite like everybody else was doing it, but it didn’t matter to him. Just to be out there doing it,” Ole said.

As proud as Andrew was, Todd might have been a close second. Thirty years of this kind of friendship makes their bond that much stronger. Andrew smiled on the way down. Todd called himself a nervous wreck. He probably held things up a little on the roof, making sure Andrew’s helmet was comfortably on him and that the harnesses weren’t going to give him too much discomfort on his way down.

“He’s been there for me over the years, too. I’ve had some issues,” Todd said. “My brother passed away last year of cancer and he was there for me. My wife and I, we went through infertility and we had eight miscarriages. Andrew was there for me with that. It’s been like that for both of us, kind of back and forth supporting each other. He’s been a good friend all the way.

“I know a lot of people when they see Andrew, I think they think he benefits from my friendship but I benefit from his friendship. People don’t always get that but it really goes both ways. I don’t know how else to express it. I feel so lucky to have him in my life.”