{"id":26003,"date":"2020-02-21T18:22:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26003"},"modified":"2020-02-21T18:22:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:22:27","slug":"polar-plunge-is-a-cool-way-to-support-local-special-olympians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/polar-plunge-is-a-cool-way-to-support-local-special-olympians\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar Plunge is a cool way to support local Special Olympians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re looking for a cool way to help local Special\nOlympics Athletes, consider bracing yourself to take the plunge!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next month, members of the public are invited to support\nlocal Special Olympics programs by joining members of the York Regional Police\nand the York Regional Police Association in the annual Polar Plunge. Set to\ntake place in Newmarket on the evening of Thursday, March 5, the Polar Plunge\nsees costumed individuals and teams literally take the plunge into a shipping\ncontainer of icy water, all in the name of raising money for local athletes\nwith intellectual challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s efforts saw the Association raise over\n$30,000 for Special Olympics Ontario. Province-wide, Polar Plunges have raised\nover $1.5 million and benefited over 25,000 athletes over the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as cold as you think,\u201d says Karen Richards of\nthe York Regional Police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Richards is a long-time supporter of both the Special\nOlympics and the Polar Plunge, having worked with Special Olympics for the past\n20 years. This year will mark her eighth Polar Plunge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s freezing, but it is an amazing chance to get\nto interact with local athletes and raise some money for the athletes as they\nget to compete in the sports they love to do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Richards has previously served as a Special Olympics\nbasketball coach, a volunteer passion that first began in 2000 when the York\nRegional Police hosted the Special Olympics Summer Games. As a volunteer, she\nsays she fell in love with their mission to give opportunities to athletes with\nintellectual disabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up working with people with intellectual\ndisabilities as a teenager at summer camps, so it was always important for me\nto stay involved,\u201d says Ms. Richards, noting that this passion eventually led\nto her being Games Manager when the Police once again hosted the Games in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe athletes make it all worthwhile,\u201d says Ms. Richards\nof her involvement in both the Special Olympics and the Polar Plunge. \u201cThe\nathletes are so excited on the day and the relationship the athletes have with\npeople in law enforcement is, I think, really important as well. Through\nSpecial Olympics, athletes gets the chance to travel to competitions and I have\nmet tons of athletes from the area who have never in their life been out of\nTown. Because of some of the money we raise, they are able to attend the\nProvincial, National and World Games to participate in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do your part to help the cause, the Polar Plunge is\nopen for anyone to participate. Each year, there are a few handfuls of\nindividuals who come out having had a Polar Plunge on their bucket list but\nnever having the opportunity to do so. By coming out, they can scratch that\nitem off their list while helping athletes and their families achieve their own\ngoals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople can support the event by going online\n(polarplunge.ca\/York) and pledging their support,\u201d says Ms. Richards, adding\nthis year\u2019s theme is the 1970s, so expect bell bottoms and other fashions of\nthe era to be the order of the day. \u201cThey can raise money for friends, there\nare athletes who are registered, and they can also come out on the night of and\ncheer us on. Come out and support us. The money that we\u2019re raising will stay so\nlocal athletes have the opportunity to compete in competition, which I think is\nreally, really important. These are the people in their community, these are\nthe people they go to school with, so if they want to come out and do a pretty\ncool experience and cross something off the bucket list, they can come out and\njoin us that night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the York Regional Police Associations\u2019 2020 Polar Plunge, visit polarplunge.ca\/York. Registration is\u00a0 $75, but this registration fee is waived once you\u2019ve raised $150 in sponsorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for a cool way to help local Special Olympics Athletes, consider bracing yourself to take the plunge! Next month, members of the public are invited to support local Special Olympics programs by joining members of the York Regional Police and the York Regional Police Association in the annual Polar Plunge. Set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Lp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 13:58:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}