Missionary Window Cleaners

WINCHESTER, VA - A local high-rise window cleaning company is doing more than shining windows; they're changing lives overseas.It isn't your typical job, but it’s not a movie stunt, either. "If you make the wrong move and something's not tied down right, it can cause injury or even death, so it's that serious," said Boyce Peele. Boyce and his son David call themselves “The Descenders.” They do high-rise window cleaning without safety nets -- just a bucket and very few strings attached. The men soar in the open sky with a harness, a rope and a lot of nerve. Nearly everyone who sees the seemingly acrobatic stunt has to comment. Peele described, “Everything from ‘That's awesome’ to ‘You’re crazy.’ We get all kinds of reactions and then we get people yelling at us, and then you always hear, ‘You missed a spot.’ "The father-son duo cleans several high-rises in the area. "One of the biggest jobs we do is the Winchester Medical Center. They have a lot of building and they're growing all the time, so every year we come back there's a new building," David said. The team cleans about 20 buildings a season, and the highest one is more than 250 feet. It gives them the perfect opportunity to see some of the most beautiful landscape in the Four-State region. Although the view is breathtaking, there's another motivation. Three years ago David and his wife sold their home and moved to South America to do missionary work. “We don't get paid. We are volunteers so we have to come back every year for about six to eight weeks in order to clean some windows, earn a little money so we can live down there the rest of the year," David said. "Because they're gone for a long period of time throughout the year, so it’s an opportunity to do a little bit of father-son bonding as well as just spending some father-son time with my son," Boyce added. David makes about $10,000 a season cleaning windows. That’s more than enough for a family of two to live in Guyana. His father runs the company while he is away.