Teachers get dunked for good cause

Students had the opportunity to dunk professors and classmates Oct. 14 as Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and the School of Education teamed up to kick off the 2009 Polar Plunge.

Polar Plunge, under the motto "Freezin' for a reason," is a student-run program to raise money for the New York chapter of the Special Olympics. "Buoyant Bonnies" team members who collect $25 or more in donations will be bused to Hamburg, N.Y., Dec. 6 where they will plunge themselves into Lake Erie, program managers Katie Peek, Integrated Marketing Communications graduate student, and Blair Freeman, an education graduate student, said.

Special Olympics New York's mission is "to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for all children and adults with intellectual disabilities, including mental retardation giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of skills and friendship with their families, Special Olympics athletes and the community," according to www.nyso.org.

The team has set a fundraising goal for $10,000 and 100 members, according to www.polarplunge.kintera.org, the team's official Web site. As of Oct. 21, the site reports the team has raised $1,991.00 and has 71 members.

Peek said the goal of $10,000 was not coincidental.

"This year we chose $10,000 because (Buffalo) State (University) last year did $6,000 so we wanted to compete with them a little bit," Peek said.

SIFE will continue its efforts with special needs students when it travels to the Bahamas over winter break, Peek said.

"We are really close with this one school, it's called the Beacon School and it's all special needs students. They put all their special needs students in one school down there, so we are going to do a (miniature) Special Olympics with them," she said.
"It was a way for us to tie our projects together."

Freeman said participating in the plunge is a rush.

"You can go in as far or as little as you want, in the past I have only gone up to my knees, I have never really gone full in, and I usually wear lots of warm clothes," she said. "Some people get real intense, they go in bikinis, bathing suits, shorts, no shirts; the one restriction is you have to wear shoes."

"As soon as you are in you can come out, or you can stay in as long as you want," Freeman said.

The kickoff was held to get prospective team members aware of the opportunity as well as raise some money for the event, Peek said.

According to an Oct. 14 Notice Board, hot chocolate, coffee, bracelets, raffle tickets, gloves and mittens were for sale at the kickoff event.

Applebee's Restaurant in Olean teamed up with Polar Plunge efforts Oct. 21, Sara Kosakowski, sophomore education major and member of the Polar Plunge Executive Board, said. Applebee's donated 10 percent of every bill during the dinner hour to Special Olympics.

One of the highlights of the polar plunge kickoff was the dunking booth. The temperature in Olean was 40 degrees the day of the kickoff, according to www.weather.com.

The plight of the plungers will not improve Dec. 6, Freeman and Peek said.

"In the past the water has always been colder than the air temperature," Freeman said. "Some times there are ice chunks floating."

Todd Palmer, associate business professor and faculty adviser for SIFE, joked in an e-mail that the plunge in the dunk tank felt great.

"It felt refreshing-not," Palmer wrote. "It was COLD!"

Neal Johnson, '73, President and CEO of Special Olympics New York, said he is both impressed and proud of his alma matre.

"It's incredible to me . the idea that the school is very much incorporating community service as part of its mission is really evident to me," Johnson said. "The support from across the campus . everybody is responding to this . that enthusiasm makes me feel good about Bona's again." Palmer wrote his brush with the dunk tank would not scare him away. He will being plunging Dec. 6.

"You better believe it," Palmer wrote. "Anything to help the Special Olympic athletes.