Look, Up In The Air, It’s… A Banker!

These days, it seems everyone probably has one reason or another to want to throw a banker off a tall building.

So in the truest sense of “If you can’t beat them, join them,” Jeffrey S. Sattler, president of Springfield-based NUVO Bank & Trust, is offering to let customers do just that – throw him off the top of the City Place Inn & Suites in downtown Springfield.

Well, kinda. And preferably, he’ll be doing it with company.

Sattler and other Boy Scouts of America (BSA) supporters will be rappelling down the sides of the City Place Inn & Suites on Friday, September 30, as part of a special “Over the Edge” fundraising event. Participants who raise a minimum of $1,000 in pledges to support the local BSA Western Massachusetts Council are given the opportunity to rappel down the 13-story building. And no need to worry – training will be provided.

Now, this is where The Teller would normally debate the merits of raising a cool grand just to pay for the privilege of sliding down the side of an otherwise fine 130-foot-tall building with nothing but a thin rope and our own soft, well-manicured hands keeping us from becoming Teller Stew on the sidewalk, but we’ll refrain – this time.

We remember fondly our Boy Scout days (OK, our friends’ Boy Scout days… The Teller wasn’t what you’d call an “outdoorsy” kid). And we’re all for wacky fundraising stunts.

“I’ve been joking with my clients and asking them if they’ve ever wanted to tell their commercial lender to take a flying leap off a tall building,” Sattler said in a statement. “Now, they’ll have that opportunity when they watch me – sort of – leap off a tall building in support of this very worthy cause.”

So Godspeed, Mr. Sattler. The Teller would only caution you to always look before you leap – secured by a rope or not, nobody wants to land in a back-alley garbage pile.