The last in the series of the 2023 Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Illinois took place at Gillson Park Beach in Wilmette on March 19, ending the Polar Plunge season.
This year was the second time the fundraiser plunge took place at Gillson Park Beach, raising $65,400.
The air temperature sat four degrees cooler than Lake Michigan water temperatures on Sunday in Wilmette when 285 people took the lake plunge. Entire plunging time lasted under 20 minutes.
The water had rolling waves this year and Lieutenant Ed Kofoed and Cody Riggan, firefighter/paramedics both with the Wilmette Fire Department, were prepared to adjust with their gear in lake water, seeing how far plungers could safely wade in if waves increased.
“It’s a great event, it’s a great cause,” Kofoed said.
“I’m happy to see the turnout and it’s exciting to see them come out for this,” Riggan said.
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Region B Director Jordan Feldman for Special Olympics Illinois said the Wilmette Park District beach has worked out well for the fundraiser.
“It’s great, it’s huge, it’s wide-open … it looks cool when we have up to 25 plungers jump in the water so it’s a really fun place to be,” Feldman said. “The (Wilmette) Park District is great to work with.”
With the Wilmette plunge being the last Polar Plunge of the year, ending the season, Feldman offered a summary.
“We are, organizationally, close to raising $2 million collectively across the 23 plunges throughout the state, including this one for the athletes of Special Olympics Illinois,” Feldman said. “The money that we raise plays a big part so athletes do not have to pay to come to our competitions.”
“There is not an entrance fee for spectators, there’s not an entrance fee for the team to join, they can come free of charge,” Feldman said. “We feed them, we want to make sure we have the most up to date equipment, and all the funds raised at these types of events go to that.”
Events include swim meets such as at Lake Forest College and track and field competitions at Prospect High School.
“It just keeps going,” Feldman said. “We are going all year non stop.”
The Wilmette Polar Plunge had about 20 fundraising teams including the Wilmette and Winnetka police departments, Evanston All Stars, company teams, individuals plus Park Ridge and Wilmette teens.
Wearing a blue narwhal costume for the plunge was Christen Ng of Naperville.
“It’s a chance to help out with the Special Olympics and you get to dress as a narwhal if you want to,” Ng said with a smile.
The Interior Investments Ice Cubicles team is headed by Wolfgang Holzl of Mount Prospect.
Interior Investments is located in Lincolnshire. Holzl was raised in Northfield and is of the New Trier West Class of 1981.
Holzl has a niece who has taken part in the Special Olympics as an athlete, “the light of my life,” Holzl said tearfully. “She’s awesome … (this is) my way of helping her participate.”
Anne Steiner of Edison Park, a member of the Ice Cubicles team, grew up in Wilmette and is of the New Trier High School Class of 1985.
Steiner recalled teen years when the weather was hot at Gillson Park Beach.
“It was summertime, it was a lot warmer,” Steiner said with a laugh. “I’m doing it because it’s for a good cause and I’m here for my friend Wolfie (Holzl), I work with him and it’s for a great cause.”
Charlize Escasa, 18, of Wilmette and a senior at New Trier Township High School, was here to plunge with the Trevian’s girls swimming and diving team.
Escasa is at Gillson Park Beach, “in the summer all the time with my friends, we usually go here to play volleyball and swim, sometimes we take the boats out. It’s really fun.”
Escasa had never plunged before in cold Lake Michigan in Wilmette, however.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous but it should be fun, it’s for charity,” Escasa said.
The Evanston All Stars also made a splash. This team is made up of all Special Olympics athletes, said Lisa Noble of Evanston, a Special Olympics athlete, athlete leader and a podcaster who documented the Evanston All Stars team plunge on Sunday.
“We always say individuals with intellectual disabilities can do whatever they want and we just believe that wholeheartedly,” Noble said.
To all, Noble had a message, “I just basically just want to say that just because people have intellectual disabilities doesn’t mean they can’t do anything that they put their minds to and just give people a chance.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
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