Taking The Polar Plunge

If you would like to donate to the 2010 Polar Plunge please visit my 2010 Polar Plunge Donation Page

As I talked about in a recent post, I recently participated in a fund raiser for the Special Olympics of Michigan. The end of the fund raiser was that I did a Polar Plunge.

This is a charity that is special to me because of my youngest daughter, Maura, who has a lot of challenges of her own. One day, my hope is to see her compete in the Special Olympics.

 

To find out more about Maura, see the “About” page at Wonderpuzzle.org. http://www.wonderpuzzle.org/site/About.aspx

 

Turns out a lot of people wanted to see me jump in a frozen lake… 🙂 In the end, I raised $725.00 + whatever we get through matching funds so probably a little over $1000.00. So, for all of you who paid to see me do it – here’s the video.

 

Special thanks to all of you who donated – many of who are friends on twitter…

Display Name Date Amount  Comment Omar Greene 2/14/2009 $50.00 Josh is a fine person. Known him since his boyhood.   JSConf 2009 2/13/2009 $100.00   Michael Eaton 2/13/2009 $25.00   David Giard 2/13/2009 $25.00   Aaron Lerch 2/13/2009 $25.00   Carey Payette 2/13/2009 $25.00 Great Cause  tye 2/12/2009 $25.00   Anonymous 2/12/2009 $25.00 good luck!  Dennis Burton 2/12/2009 $25.00   Frank Martin 2/11/2009 $25.00 Happy to help this cause.  Susan Holmes 2/11/2009 $25.00 Because we love you and yours  kellie englund 2/10/2009 $25.00 hope Phoebe gets your new suit done in time!!!  Denny Boynton 2/10/2009 $50.00 Because you’re even willing to do it…  Pandamonial 2/10/2009 $40.00 Good luck!   Ryan Stewart 2/10/2009 $50.00   Anonymous 2/9/2009 $20.00 don’t freeze your butt off!  Bruce Szabo 2/9/2009 $25.00 Good Luck!  Anonymous 2/9/2009 $40.00 Good luck!   Tim Adams 2/9/2009 $100.00 God Bless!!!      Grand Total: $725.00

It was a surreal experience. I watched how far across the water it was and decided that I just needed to make a dive for it. The water was about 8 foot deep where I made the jump. When I hit the water, every last bit of breath left my body. As one person said, that’s God’s way of making sure you don’t yell bad words when you hit the surface. I said something about “Man that’s cold” but it came out “BBBBBRBRRRBBRBBBRBBRBBRBRBRB”. The really bizarre thing was getting out of the water and realizing that I was walking across the snow and my feet didn’t feel cold. The snow actually felt a little warm. I got in and changed the feelings got more bizarre as my skin warmed up but I was still cold inside – exactly the opposite of normal when it’s cold outside your skin is usually the first to get cold.

I just got off the phone with a friend who asked “Would you do it again?”. I answered “Yes”. He rephrased the question with “Would you do it again if there wasn’t a good cause involved?”. I answered “No…”

Look for me to do it again next year but I’m going to go bigger on the fund raising and possibly go with a costume…