Dr. Robert Carolla knows how to drive a hard bargain. And he knows how to follow through when his staff holds up their end of the deal – even if that means hurtling toward the ground at
120 mph.
That’s the position Carolla found himself in on July 4, when he did his first tandem skydive, just like he’d promised his staff when they were raising funds for Relay For Life.
“It was even more fun than I expected,” Carolla says. “It didn’t even seem like I was in the air, I just felt detached; it’s wonderful.”
The trip was the final payoff in Oncology-Hematology Associates’ fundraising efforts for the American Cancer Society.
In the spring, nurse Kelly Paulie and OHA’s Relay For Life team suggested that Carolla consider jumping if they met their goal of raising $1,000.
That figure seemed low to Carolla.
“I said, ‘You’re nuts, I’m not doing that for 1,000 bucks.’ I jokingly told them, ‘I’ll do it for $10,000’ – they did it and here we are,” he says.
Over a six-week period, the staff raised $13,327 – a figure bested by only three other teams in Springfield. And, for the cause, Carolla agreed to make the jump at Skydive Skyranch in Siloam Springs, Ark.
Paulie and Carolla traveled together to Arkansas, where they met skydiver and former OHA patient Steve Babin. Paulie and three of her co-workers had made their first jumps with Babin and the crew at the Skyranch last summer.
Carolla had postponed a jump in the spring as he prepared for his daughter’s wedding in late June. Even with the extra time to prepare, he admits he was nervous as the time drew near.
“I was a little ... well, there was a small chance I might chicken out,” he says with a laugh. “Not really, but driving down I worried I might back out.”
Carolla joked with the crew before the jump that he had hoped for rain. But by the time he was in the partly cloudy skies with tandem instructor Christian Grill and pilot Wolf Grulkey, he says he was struck by the tranquility of it all.
“It’s really interesting going up to 10,000 feet, everyone is very quiet in the airplane,” he says. “It’s almost a Zen experience.”
Above the drop zone, Grill opened the door and he and Carolla leaned forward and jumped into position, belly down and parallel with the fields below. Carolla says he was struck by the rush of wind during the first half of the dive.
Once the main parachute opened, Carolla and Grill were brought upright and they were able to steer the parachute to the airstrip below.
“It makes you really excited and pumped,” Carolla says. On the ground, Fourth of July foods like hamburgers and hotdogs were available, but he says he was too excited to eat. “I was so revved up!
“It was thrilling, but there’s a sense of peace, too. I can see why people do it.”
Carolla says the jump was everything he had hoped it would be, and it’s an illustration of the opportunities that await him as he enters retirement this month.
“This is something I secretly always wanted to do,” he says. “I’m a cautious person, yet I have an adventurous streak.
“Sometimes people retire and they feel like they’re over the hill and there are no new challenges. That’s not the way I’m planning to retire. I’m ready for more challenges.”
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