Taking the polar plunge for Special Olympics

Volunteers lined up on the ice at Falcon Lake on March 21, to take turns jumping or cannonballing into the icy water, all to raise funds for Special Olympics Manitoba.

Adell Gauthier, senior director of fund development, said 17 people made the plunge, raising more than $23,000 combined.

“When you look at how many people were involved those are just extremely successful results,” she said. “We’re just so grateful for everybody that fundraised and shared the word on their social networks and told their friends and families to get involved.”

“We’re just blown away by these results,” she added.

Participants jumped into a hole cut in the ice into water that was a mere 2 C, emerging with the help of a ladder into similar temperatures above the surface.

A trio of heated ice fishing shacks were available to restore warmth as was a sauna on wheels.

Falcon Lake has been the site of a polar plunge before.

Gauthier said for the last four years a private polar plunge was held at the Falcon Lake home of a local RCMP officer.

“It’s the first time we had a public plunge on Falcon,” she said, adding The Hotel at Falcon Lake also took part, joining the original team of law enforcement and firefighters called Falcon Blue Steel.

A pair of individuals also signed up to plunge.

This event is one of nine plunges planned for Manitoba this year, but it’s rare they have the opportunity to cut a hole in an actual lake to make it possible, Gauthier said.

The most common is to bring their specially built trailer to communities like Portage, Brandon and Winnipeg, which offers a large enough tank for the fundraiser. In Gimli this year, they will host a different type of polar plunge, planned for just after break-up, that will see a mass plunge from participants running into the lake from the beach.

Gauthier said these events are vital to their success as they bring great awareness and provide funds.

“The funds raised are necessary to be able to have Special Olympics Manitoba exist,” she said. “We provide weekly sport programs from ages two years old with no age limit all across the province.”

“We support over 2,000 athletes in Manitoba, and we wouldn’t be able to do this without funds, and funds come from events like polar plunges.”

Special Olympics continues to look for volunteers and coaches which make more programs available for more athletes to take part.

“Our programs wouldn’t exist without coaches and we’re so grateful for the incredible volunteer hours that are donated every year to be able to offer these sports,” she said.

The next Polar Plunge takes place at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg on March 28.

That event will feature 126 participants.

Steinbach too will host a polar plunge though the unlikely time of year, scheduled to run during Summer in the City, means “polar” may be a stretch.

“We’re jokingly calling it maybe a solar plunge because in June they don’t have to battle the same kind of cold,” she said.

But they don’t want to make it too easy. “We’ll add ice to the tank for that one,” she explained.

For more information, to donate or to volunteer go to www.specialolympics.mb.ca.