Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj took the plunge on May 3 to help celebrate the official opening of One Axe Pursuit’s new location here.
Dozens of local residents and members of the business community were on hand to watch the mayor and business owner Frederick Schuett rappel down the side of the former Chalmers Church building.
“On behalf of the township, I would like to welcome One Axe Pursuits to the town. I would suggest everyone should try this. It’s great for the soul and these guys are the greatest teachers,” the mayor said.
“I must admit, I love having my own Spiderman (referring to Schuett) … he’s terrific. I think this is going to be a wonderful addition.”
As to her experience rappelling, Ross-Zuj said, “you focus – and don’t think of anything else.”
“It’s that first drop, the one you pay attention to. It was an amazing experience. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
She said that first there was getting up into the bell tower which is the climb, which she found more difficult than the actual rappelling.
“But Frederick is such an excellent teacher and he gives you the confidence that you need to take that leap.”
“I can’t say enough about how it is going to be a good business for him to set up in town and I can see why the kids love this,” the mayor added.
Owner Frederick Schuett said that “for the past several years we’ve been thinking of moving here.”
He explained the building is a short distance from the Elora gorge – the location of the company’s most popular programs including ziplining and corporate team building.
“Since we are at the gorge all the time, it just seemed to be the right decision to move.”
Another reason was that he and his family lived in a smaller home. “We needed to upsize as the business takes up a lot of space with the equipment.”
“It’s not that we were choosing to pick a church. We were just looking for another home.”
He said they had been thinking they would not be involved in any more renovation projects “but this changed the rules.”
“It’s such an awesome space, so close to the ziplining … we just had to get it.”
Renovations were a lot of work, he said.
Schuett explained the building was almost all boarded up.
“Inside you had to walk around with a flashlight even on a sunny day.
“We put about eight months to a year into the renovations and we’ve been living in the back for about six months.”
The building will have office space, perhaps a built in classroom – or a group might meet here before heading off to the gorge.
On average, he explained, there are too many participants to all of the parking on-site.
For the ziplining program, he said most people would park at the community centre and walk to the site.
For small corporate events, he said he would encourage participants to park at the office location.
He said the new facilities may offer a chance for an expanded venue and at some point, he’d like to be able to offer the bell tower rappelling.
“We’ve done it for private groups … but it would eventually be cool to have it on our website as something you could book any weekend you wanted.”
