Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - He's back.
Daredevil high wire walker Nik Wallenda will return to the Buffalo area later this month and walk a wire atop D'Youville College.
The event is part of the grand opening of D'Youville's Health Professions Hub.
Wallenda, known as "King of the High Wire," is best known as the first person to walk an international wire over Niagara Falls on June 15, 2012, almost nine years to the day of the D'Youville event.
"I'm really excited about coming back to Buffalo and this is just an honor," Wallenda told WBEN Thursday morning. "Western New York really helped launch my career to what it is today."
"On June 17, I'll be doing a wire walk on D'Youville property for the grand opening of the Health Professions Hub. It's a gorgeous building and I've had the opportunity of seeing it and walking through it," he said.
Wallenda revealed to WBEN that he is coming off an unusual year. "My last TV special where I walked over an active volcano was about four days before the pandemic really hit and put my world, the entertainment world, into a tailspin."
Wallenda said all of that down time afforded him the opportunity to write a new book, titled "Facing Fear", which tells the story of the accident that we had in 2017. I eventually had to deal with fear, which I didn't realize was even in my DNA," he said. "The book tells the process of how I got through that fear."
He's hoping to inspire others who are dealing with fear. He believes prior to Covid, many people were held back from their greatest achievements because of fear. Wallenda thinks that number is much greater now as we're coming out of the pandemic.
In anticipation of his walk, Wallenda said, "It will be exciting to get back in front of a live audience again."
Wallenda's wire walk at D'Youville will start mid morning on the 17th and run through the afternoon. There will be an opportunity to meet Wallenda and get a copy of his book.
Wallenda is the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls. He walked 1,800 feet (his longest walk) on a steel cable over Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua, on March 4, 2020. He has also walked above the Grand Canyon (highest walk of his career in 2013), and 25 stories above Times Square in New York City (2019).
D'Youville's newly constructed Health Professions Hub is designed to address several critical healthcare needs in the region, provide much needed primary care services to residents of the West Side, and offer a space where D'Youville students can gain essential clinical experience.
