Polar challenge sure to chill
By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN
Bill Lovewell knows that Special Olympics athletes draw on their courage every time out.
So he is challenging others to do the same.
Lovewell, state director of the Kansas Law Enforcement Torch Run, is trying to recruit as many as possible to participate in the Hays Polar Plunge, a fund raiser for Special Olympics Kansas.
Individuals are out gathering pledges from businesses, coworkers, family and friends for their $75 donation for the right to jump into a body of cold water on Feb. 13.
Lovewell, investigator in the detective division of the Hays Police Department, said the mud volleyball pit at Fort Hays will be dredged out and filled with water a couple of days before the plunge.
Groups can register as a team. All participants will receive a commemorative sweatshirt.
Participants can either dive right in or just dip in their big toe.
Should a participant "chicken out" at the last minute, he still can register and watch the action.
"I've been bragging I'm going to do the Nestea plunge," said Lovewell, who participated in his first plunge two years ago at Tuttle Creek near Manhattan. "So I'm sure they will hold me to it."
The Kansas Law Enforcement Torch Run was begun in Wichita nearly 30 years ago, when officers raised $400 for Special Olympics Kansas.
That amount has built substantially over the years and soared to $33 million internationally last year.
Of the $350,000 raised in Kansas in 2009, $225,000 of it was off polar plunges.
The first Polar Plunge in Kansas was started in Olathe several years ago and now has grown to 10 cities, including Hays.
"One of the reasons our Kansas program is doing so well so that we don't count on total corporate sponsorships," Lovewell said. "We preach that small donations add up."
Registration for the Hays Polar Plunge is at 10 a.m. near the bridge that connects the main campus with Gross Memorial Coliseum, and there will be a soup and sandwich lunch afterwards inside the warm confines of Cunningham Hall.
Participants are asked to bring their own towels and blankets.
The event could be postponed because of dangerous weather such as ice.
Cold temperatures alone is not one of them.
"I hope it's cold," he said. "Fifty degrees isn't very challenging. The idea is that it's supposed to be cold; it's supposed to take your breath away."
For more information or to pre-register, call Lovewell at (785) 625-1011 or visit the Kansas Special Olympics Web site at www.ksso.org/plunge.html.