Polar Bear Plunge Offers Freezing Fun

Merydeth Cummings
12.20.07

On Dec. 8, the ice on car windshields wasn’t the only ice being broken. Over 200 people showed up at this year’s annual Polar Bear Plunge at Zorinsky Lake. This was a charity even for the Special Olympics, and people raised pledges, or money, to jump into the lake.

“My group was with Rotella’s Bakery, so we made a ton of money, probably anywhere from 2 to 5 grand,” junior Jake Kunkle said.

Plungers had the option of jumping by themselves or in groups of up to five. Radio station 89.7 The River, Rotella’s Bakery and Tier One Bank were among some of the companies that sponsored this year’s jump. Employees joined teams and dressed in a large gamut of clothing, ranging from very little to many layers of clothing.

“We wore bikinis and tutus,” junior Jinna Johnson “We didn’t really have a theme we just wore what we thought was crazy and fun.”

Out of the 200 people who came to the Polar Bear Plunge, around 100 actually jumped into the freezing lake, while on-lookers helped out.

“There were a lot of people there, but some people just video taped it and lots of people held blankets for the jumpers when they came out of the lake,” Johnson said.

Originally scheduled for Dec. 1, the event was rescheduled due to bad weather conditions such as ice and snow storms. This year however, the turnout was much higher than the previous years. The donations totaled approximately $45,000, compared to the last four years’ combined totals of $60,000.

The new web site, set up for the funding of the event, may have attributed to this turnout. Here, people were able to give pledges and donations to the Special Olympics. Still, others registered the same day of the plunge.

“It was a last minute thing. We only had a few days in advance so we tried to raise money, but next year we’ll definitely do better,” Johnson said.