Freezin' for a Reason

A few months ago, I told you about the upcoming Parking Lot Polar Plunge fundraiser for Special Olympics North Carolina. After last week’s brief stint of 80 degree weather, I had high hopes that Saturday's Polar Plunge would be something other than polar. I was hoping for a heat wave that would leave us with a lukewarm, something resembling bath water, kind of plunge.

To put it plainly, I was wrong. Wrong in a 42 degree temperature kind of way. Wrong in a blustery, windy, big rock star hair kind of way. Wrong in a teeth-chattering, can’t find a towel fast enough kind of way.

But sometimes being wrong is a perfectly fantastic thing to be.

Note: YES, that's ICE and NO, it's not melting!

Apparently, the water wasn’t cold enough so we added about 1000 pounds of ice to the mix. Yep, that did it. We had officially reached POLAR status.

There were about 40 brave (or maybe crazy) folks that were “freezin’ for a reason”, braving the frigid water and the wind to take a cold splash for cold cash.

 

And, there were costumes. I thought my Fancy Nancy rocked (complete with bejeweled star hairpins that you can’t really see in this photo) but the Smurfs won the Costume Contest. They deserved it; not everyone can pull off that stellar shade of blue!

At the end of the day, we’d raised about 5000 dollars which is a HUGE, EXCITING, PHENOMENAL big deal.

If you missed this fantastic way to spend half a Saturday, you missed out this time BUT lucky for you, we’re making plans to make this an annual event so next year, you’ll have a chance to join us for a quick little dip.

Huge thanks go to:

Karen Morrow & Ken Pike (who organized & spearheaded this truly fun event)- From concept to execution, you guys simply rock! Thank you for all you do for SONC!

Garner Fire Department (who helped with the pool & water {and just so you know- no, you can’t put the water back in the hydrant after you’ve used it!})- Thank you for going above and beyond to help us and for getting your feet wet during the take-down so we could keep ours’ dry. (Note to self: Next year, bring galoshes for the pool emptying part of the day!)

Chick-fil-A Owner Jerry & Manager Kim- Thank you for partnering with the SBI & ALE to make dreams come true for SONC athletes- We heart you guys! (and we heart the banana pudding milkshake... I'm proof positive you're never too cold for ice cream!)

To the great sponsors (that I won’t list for fear of missing someone fantastic), THANK YOU!!! We couldn’t have had such an amazing day without you!

And, finally, to the plungers- We hope you had as much fun as we did and we hope to see you (and lots of your friends) next year!!!

PS- The next SONC fundraiser for ALE & SBI is Cops on Top- May 13-14; we hope to see you there!