2022 Polar Plunge Photos

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You’re ALL IN. I’m ALL IN. We’re all ALL IN!

2,580 Chill Seekers Raise $1.1 Million for Special Olympics Virginia at 30th Polar Plunge® Festival

Virginia Beach, VA – The challenges of the last two years didn’t stop 2,508 colony members (if you haven’t already heard this from us, a group of penguins is called a colony and ours is one of the best) from huddling up (yes, that’s another penguin reference – penguins huddle together to stay warm) to brrrave the chilly Atlantic at the 2022 Polar Plunge® Festival, Feb. 5.  Plungers and runners not only celebrated an icy $1.1 million raised – and counting! – for Special Olympics Virginia, but also the event’s eleventh million dollar year!

“At Special Olympics Virginia, our vision is to inspire the first unified generation; a generation of people who respectfully include each other in their school, in their workplace, in their community,” said Rick Jeffrey, Special Olympics Virginia President. “PLUNGING today included people with intellectual disabilities and those without; people of all ages, genders, races and religions; students and teachers; doctors and lawyers; military and law enforcement; ONE TEAM.  And all so that we can unify communities in Hampton Roads and across Virginia through the transformative power of Special Olympics.”

In addition to the main event, students and teachers kicked things off Friday, Feb. 4 at the Cool School Penguin Plunge. 336 students raised $53,037 in support of Special Olympics Virginia’s 22,000+ athletes.  And there was no worry about cold feet (even though penguin feet are made to walk long distances, sometimes up to 60 miles) because students earned plastic penguins for fundraising and cheered as those penguins (2,383 of them) raced to the finish line in YMCA Camp Grom’s lazy river. One lucky duck – oops we mean penguin – Kaylyn Roper, a student at Plaza Middle School, won a dunk tank celebration event for Plaza when her penguin crossed first (we wonder what Plaza penguin will be in the dunk tank first!).

Saturday morning, 260 runners and walkers dashed during the 4 Miler and 1 Miler along the boardwalk. Before the Plunge at 2 pm, plungers and festivalgoers enjoyed music by DJ Julian, the TJ Maxx Boardwalk Boogie Costume Parade and Contest, vendors, a life-size sand sculpture, ice carvings, food and fun.

While they weren’t all wearing penguin-like tuxedos (penguin camouflage has a special name, countershading, by the way), we couldn’t have done it without each and every plunger, runner, partner and volunteer in our colony. Here are a few additional highlights:

  • The Ice-Aholics team took home the Top Team fundraising award, with more than $48,000 raised.
  • Jennifer Bonds raised $21,096 and claimed the top individual fundraising prize and some cool Polar Plunge prizes!

This year’s event is presented by FM99, 106.9 THE FOX, WTKR News3, The Wawa Foundation, Virginia Natural Gas, Walmart, WGNT, the Virginia Knights of Columbus and the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Virginia. Since 1993, more than 58,000 plungers have raised in excess of $18 million for Special Olympics Virginia. The inaugural Polar Plunge took place in 1993 at the Clarion Hotel when 108 plungers raised $11,000 for Special Olympics Virginia.

This event is one of five Polar Plunge® Festivals in Virginia. In addition to the Virginia Beach event, plunges will take place in Northern VA at Leesylvania State Park Saturday, Feb 19 and in the New River Valley, Saturday, Feb. 26. Plungers kicked things off Dec. 11 in Richmond, followed by a Plunge in Fairfax at the Mosaic Jan. 15; the first plunges of the season raised $116,000.

For more information, please contact Sean Wallach at 609.213.1665/swallach@specialolympicsva.org. For more information on Special Olympics Virginia, visit www.specialolympicsva.org. A photo, taken by Molly McClure, should be attached with the release; if additional photos are needed please visit our Facebook page (fb.com/polarplungevirginia) or email Sean.