WISCONSIN (NBC 26) — This year raising money for Special Olympics Wisconsin looked a little different as changes were made to their annual Polar Plunge fundraiser event.
In a normal year, participants would jump into freezing lakes and pools but this year locally they held it at Ariens Hill at Titletown.
“We usually have the polar plunge in the freezing water with people jumping in the water, but due to the some of the safety concerns with Covid-19and social distancing and making sure that everything was being sanitized in between participants we needed to pick a different type of event”, said Sarah Graper, Director of Development with the Special Olympics of Wisconsin.
She said the event at Titletown was actually supposed to happen a few weeks ago but it had to be rescheduled due to the frigid wind chills.
Graper credited a lot of the turnout to the great weather on Saturday.
“Beautiful weather the sun was out, everyone was so happy to be out, doing something and then supporting the cause for Special Olympics Wisconsin”, Graper said.
With the challenges that Covid-19 has placed onto many organizations, Graper said they were extremely grateful they were able to pull this event off.
“Special Olympics just like any non profit in the last year really struggled because we are used to having fundraisers and activities even for our athletes outside, so we had to switch gears a little bit”, Graper said. “But our athletes still participated just like everyone else through Zoom. We had meetings to make sure that their physical and mental health, their needs were still being met. And any of the activities that they could do while practicing socially distant measures, they were able to still participate.”
She goes on to say that she is extremely grateful for all the outpouring support they’ve received so far from the community.
“We are hoping to raise $150,000 for this event. We have until March 5th that we kind of cut off this fundraiser event. People who fundraise they can earn incentives such as hats or mittens or sweatshirts”, Graper said.
If you want to help the Special Olympics of Wisconsin help reach their goal you can click here.
