UNC Special Olympics’ Polar Plunge brought around 25 people to the Lark apartment complex pool Saturday to jump into the frigid water together in celebration of a six-week long fundraising effort for future Special Olympics events.
Among them was junior Brock Schoenwald, treasurer of UNC Special Olympics, who was a key figure in organizing the fundraising effort.
“So essentially this money that we are raising today is going to Special Olympics Orange County, which is the Special Olympics chapter that we at UNC work with," Schoenwald said.
The club decided to give the money to the larger organization in Special Olympics Orange County, which will use the money for their own future events, including basketball and flag-football leagues and tournaments for athletes.
The actual fundraising for Polar Plunge began long before the event with each UNC Special Olympics club member challenged with raising money.
“We started raising funds about a month and a half ago, and we really just left it up to our club members to raise as much as they thought would be feasible, and $50 per person just seemed like a good number," said Special Olympics co-president Mackenzie Albert. “So we were hoping to raise at least a thousand, and I think we just reached that goal today.”
Polar Plunge is not a fundraising event unique to Special Olympics Orange County but rather a trademark event for Special Olympics nationwide.
