Dozens Take The Plunge Down Side Of Loop Hotel For Lung Disease
CHICAGO (CBS) -- About 80 people were taking a risk this weekend, rappelling down the side of a downtown skyscraper, all in the name of raising money for lung disease.
Ronette Kasiazak's husband, Mike, didn't want to do it.
"The whole way down, he was saying 'I hate you, I hate you,'" she told WBBM Newsradio's Brandis Friedman.
But Mike couldn't let his wife rappel 27 floors down the side of theWit hotel -- at State and Lake streets -- without him.
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The couple went over the edge during Sunday's "Skyline Plunge" to raise money for the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago – as Ronette's father fights a losing battle with small cell lung cancer.
They're among 80 people who registered to rappel down the hotel on Saturday and Sunday.
Their goal is to raise $120,000 that goes to local research and programs for lung diseases like asthma, COPD and cancer.
Organizers said the majority of people participating have been affected by lung disease. One million people in the metro Chicago area are affected.
Sunday's group of people taking the plunge were delayed around an hour due to thunderstorms that moved through the area.
This is the first time the organization has held the event twice in a weekend, because of the increased demand.
As volunteers made their way down, a small crowd of onlookers and supporters watched from the median at State and Lake to cheer and take pictures.
Those rappelling down the building used the same technology used by window washers.
The money raised stays in the area, going to local lung disease research and programs.
