First Plunge!
The Polar Plunge is a fundraiser for Special Olympics. There are many polar plunge locations, I was at the one at Loon Lake in Yorkville.
The main event of the Polar Plunge is to actually go into a lake in the winter!!! Before taking the plunge, we had to register and we looked for officers from the Aurora Police Department. Despite having foot surgery, officer Lisa decided to show up and support Special Olympics. I saw some friends there. They had lunch, pulled pork sandwiches and macaroni and cheese.
We were team "Brain Freeze". My team consisted of my mom, my dad and me. We gave some donations to Special Olympics.
To plunge into the cold lake, safety officers stand in the water and you cannot go past them. Groups take turns going in the water, my dad and I were the second group. It was kind of sad that mom didn't plunge with us. She said she might do it next year.
I was scared to death about plunging. I was sort of worried about the temperature of the water. I was worried I would sink. To overcome the fear, I took baby steps so to speak, and I let my father go in first. Then I grabbed onto him. We both stayed buoyant. I walked into the lake, Dad eventually let go of me and I stayed buoyant myself. I think people were cheering when we were in the water and as we got out of the water. I can't tell what was tougher, getting in, getting out, or changing my clothes afterwards. It was tough getting back out because they had an angled pathway. One of the helpers helped me get out of the water and onto the angled pathway.
Then we went in a special tent to get changed. We wore our new Polar Plunge sweatshirts that we got for plunging. Maybe mom will get one next year.
We left the lake site and went back to the hall where we were earlier.
After all the plungers came back into the hall, it was speech time! I was the only speaker, representing Special Olympics athletes as a Global Messenger. Sheila had written the speech ahead of time. I practiced it at home a couple times. I said good things about Special Olympics. Bob was a helper who held the microphone for me. One of the people in charge, Amanda, later commented that she's never heard the audience laugh harder, which means they enjoyed my speech. Then the event ended.
Can't wait to do this next year, maybe with Randy!
