Before taking the Polar Plunge the crew (mostly) from Cook County looked pretty dry and happy. Calling themselves “Holli’s Hope” the six raised $2,700 for Special Olympics by participating in the Maple Grove Polar Plunge on Saturday, February 7. (L-R, front) Linda McClellan and Bryann Bockovich. (L-R, back) Sara Gale, Blake Deneweth, Wellesley Howard-Larsen and Lollie Cooper.
Batman did it. Superman too. Captain America, Super Girl, Wonder Woman, super heroes of all stripes did it.
They all took the Polar Plunge Saturday, February 7 in Fish Lake in Maple Grove to raise money for Special Olympics.
Joining the cast of kooky crazies was Cook County’s own crew of crazies. For the fourth year in a row Bryann Bockovich led a team from Cook County. Joining her were Lillie Cooper, Blake Deneweth, Sara Gale, Wellesley Howard-Larsen and Linda McClellan from Elk River. They called themselves “Holli’s Hope” named for McClellan’s 18-year-old daughter who has won a gold medal in the Special Olympics for bowling.
“We raised $2,700,” said Bockovich. “Half of that was dedicated to the Elk River branch of Special Olympics and the other half to Maple Grove Special Olympics.”
But they weren’t the only ones to submerge their egos in the frigid Fish Lake waters and scream like little girls at a Justin Bieber concert. Some donned costumes as polar bears or bunnies, crayons or pylons; several versions of teenage mutant ninja turtles looked like they wanted to crawl back into their shells after they had leaped. There was an ensemble of cheerleaders and jocks and nerds and a couple of radio talk show jocks that looked like nerds. They all jumped. So did the two chefs clutching cooking utensils and the girl with a plunger in hand. She got a big laugh.
Also getting a roar from the crowd were the two couples from the “Prom gone terribly wrong.”
Those and many of Minnesota’s brazen brave hearts—a colorful cast of crazed, capricious, carefree youngsters and old codgers took turns diving, flipping, jumping, skipping, hopping, dancing, cannonballing, falling, flailing and flinging themselves into the frigid waters of Fish Lake.
They all took the Polar Plunge.
Yes, there were rescue people in wet suits in the water. Smiling police were on hand to lend a hand and a nearby ambulance waited in case of an emergency. Happily, other than the lake taking a giant spanking, there were no emergencies. …other than some clothing emergencies, especially the two guys in pink speedos who looked like they last entered a gym when Nixon was president. They got the biggest laughs of the day, and there was plenty to laugh at.
The large crowd stayed for much of the four-hour polar plunge. Each participant raised funds to be given to the Minnesota branch of Special Olympics. Last year more than $3 million was raised statewide in efforts like the one held in Maple Grove.
During the frigid winter of 2014 more than 860 brave souls took the plunge held at Fish Lake, raising almost $200,000 for Special Olympics in Minnesota. Totals for this year aren’t in yet.
More than 200 million people worldwide are considered mentally or physically challenged. The Special Olympics goal is to work with them and their families to focus on what these people can do, not what they can’t do. There are 32 Olympic sports that athletes train for, from children to adults.
Last year more than 4.4 million Special Olympian athletes competed in one or more of the 81,129 events held worldwide. Almost 1.5 million volunteers assisted these athletes and worked at these events. But to make all of that happen funds have to be raised. And to do that, as the more than 800 participants from the Fish Lake Polar Plunge well know, sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith to make something good happen.
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