Freezin’ for a reason: Polar Plunge raises money, awareness for Special Olympics

Donning inflatable doughnut inner tubes, a group of Red Bank Elementary School teachers emerged from the frigid waters of Lake Murray exclaiming a common refrain:

“Cold!” Peg Hippen said it for them all.

They were freezin’ for a reason – because surely no one would voluntarily rush into the lake on a windy, 40-degree February morning if it weren’t for a good cause.

At least 120 people took the Polar Plunge (emphasis on the “polar”) Saturday morning in support of Special Olympics South Carolina.

“It sure is darn cold, I can tell you that,” said Travis Luthren, a 26-year-old Special Olympics four-sport athlete, one of more than 22,000 Special Olympians across the state.

For the fourth year, Luthren made the plunge to raise money and awareness for the organization that means “pretty much everything” to him, he said.

Special Olympics uses sports to empower people living with intellectual disabilities and to help raise awareness of their abilities and dignity.

Saturday’s Polar Plunge was an event of the Law Enforcement Torch Run, which supports Special Olympics events around the world. Around $30,000 had been raised by the plungers before they hit the water.

“It’s a pretty simple concept,” said Mike Still, who organized the fourth annual Lake Murray plunge. “People think we’re crazy for jumping in the water. So that’s what we want. We want to bring awareness to Special Olympics and raise money doing it.”

The cause brought out a number of young people from area schools, including Samantha Reichle, a 17-year-old White Knoll High School student.

As a member of her school’s Project UNIFY program, which bonds students with and without intellectual disabilities through sports and leadership opportunities, Reichle interacts with Special Olympians on a daily basis, she said, “and they’ve become some of my best friends.”

She was happy to plunge for a good cause, she said.

Her strategy?

“Once you get in, you just try not to think about it,” Reichle said.

Though Still is a veteran polar plunger – and will probably make the jump seven or eight times this year for Law Enforcement Torch Run events, he said – the anxiety still hits him every time before he rushes into the water.

“I know what’s coming, but every time before we jump, I feel like I have to pee on myself,” he said. “But you know, then I get to thinking about it. And I think about what Special Olympics athletes go through every day, and I say, ‘I want to have the bravery they have, so I’m going in this cold water.’”

“It’s a few minutes of discomfort for me, but it’s a lifetime of dreams for them,” he said.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 7:31 PM.