Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Havre saw 70 fundraisers enjoying warmer weather Saturday for a rare opportunity the chance to jump into ice-cold water to help Montana Special Olympics. The volunteers jumping into the 5,000-gallon vat of water filled with tubs of ice just before they jumped seemed to think the effort was worth it but it was still an incredible experience. “It was terrible,” Joei Ross said after jumping. “It was terrible last year too,” she added. The jumpers were raising money in the third annual Sub-Zero “Super Hero” Polar Plunge, which provides money for local Special Olympics athletes and for the state Summer Games. The 70 fundraisers brought in $20,126 for Special Olympics. The program provides athletic competition for state residents who have developmental disabilities, allowing them to compete in local qualifiers and earn the chance to compete at the summer games. Before the event, Havre Town Square was filled with people, who crowded near Fourth Avenue to watch a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter land. Volunteers, including members of the Havre Key Club, were taking registrations, handing T-shirt to the jumpers and selling 2009 Law Enforcement Torch Run T-shirts and entries to a raffle for a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid. Ross said the work done through Special Olympics makes the frozen plunge worth it. She said she knows people with family members who have developmental disabilities, including Asia Drew, who read the Special Olympics Athletes’ Oath before the volunteers started the plunge. Havre Police Sgt. Derek Mahlum, who has spearheaded the organization of the polar plunge for three years, was the first to jump. Mahlum said the total raised 60 percent of the money stays in the Havre area, while 40 percent goes to fund the Summer Games in Great Falls is slightly less than last year, but was raised by fewer jumpers. While the 2008 plunge raised $21,500, 109 people raised that money, compared to the 70 who raised $20,126 this year. “With less jumpers we raised almost the same amount of money,” he said. Mahlum added that Havre’s goal is to go after the top money raiser each year. “We’ve got our sights set on Missoula,” Mahlum said. “They’re the top dog. “It might take us a year or two,” he added. The Missoula jump raised about $38,000 this year, but has raised more than $60,000 in other years, he said. Terry Sappington of Great Falls, the coordinator of the Montana Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run, said the first ice water dunk took place in Kalispell in 1999 the Penguin Plunge. The event has now grown to eight communities including Havre. All of the money raised by the events, as well as the torch run held before the summer games, stays in Montana to fund Special Olympics. The money goes to pay for training for the athletes and to run the games themselves, Sappington said. The polar plunge fundraiser is growing every year, with crowds coming to watch the jumpers and enjoy the festivities, Sappington said. “It’s a great way, a fun way, to raise funds and support Special Olympics,” Sappington said. “It’s something people love to go back and brag about to family and friends.”
