Polar Plunge for Special Olympics raises $11,000

The Upper Cumberland Special Olympics Polar Plunge was highlighted by a competition between White County High School’s principal, Greg Wilson, and athlete Jordan Casey as they, along with 68 other ‘plungers’ from around the Upper Cumberland braved the cold waters and windy morning, on March 6, at the Sparta YMCA to raise money for the region’s Special Olympics athletes.

“This is a great event,” Wilson, who was plunging for the second year in a row, said. “The kids have a lot of excitement with it. Special Olympics is near and dear to my heart, and I am proud of our kids that participate in Special Olympics.”

Wilson said he had heard that some of 2020’s participants weren’t going to be able to participate this year, and he looked for ways to boost the event.

“Jordan challenged me, and we’ve had fun with it. He’s done a great job [promoting it],” Wilson said, adding that between the two of them they had raised close to $5,000. “The community has done a great job. The community has really got behind him. It’s been fun.”

Casey agreed with Wilson about both the Polar Plunge and the friendly competition between the two being fun.

“We are going to have a great time today fundraising for Special Olympics,” Casey said as he got ready to jump into the cold water in the Sparta YMCA pool. “I’m in a competition with Mr. Wilson, and I’m going to beat him!”

Casey, who actually jumped three different times during the Polar Plunge, was correct.

“The online amount doesn’t reflect the totals for Gregory Wilson and Jordan Casey, but all donations from today and online indicate that Jordan Casey won the challenge by $54,” Nancy Benningfield, the region’s Special Olympics director and organizer of the event, said. “Way to go!”

Wilson and Casey weren’t the only ones raising money or jumping into the cold waters. By the time the event was over, 60 individuals had taken the challenge and jumped into the pool with $11,000 being raised, surpassing the goal of $10,000 that had been set.

According to the Special Olympics state offices, there are still more donations being sent in, and anyone wishing to contribute can do so by using the link give.glassy.org/ucpp21

Jill McCulley, White County Special Education teacher, said the funds raised will go both to the Upper Cumberland Special Olympics program and the Unified Champion Schools, of which White County High School is one.

“The money that goes to the Upper Cumberland Special Olympics is used for us to go to our events, both state and local. It covers anything we need for the athletes: transportation, food, uniforms, sports equipment, everything,” McCulley said. “The Unified Champion Schools do stuff within the school like a ‘Spread the Word to End the Word’ campaign, or they might help us with an event by providing snacks or waters or things.”

The Polar Plunge was the second of what Benningfield says will be an annual event.

“Last year was our first time to do this. It was hard, but we did it. People turned out – it was packed. But right after that COVID hit,” she said, stating that she was a little worried about how this year’s event would go. “This year we had to play things a little differently, but people are still excited. I was afraid we wouldn’t raise as much as last year, but it looks like we are going to. This is fun, and we are going to do keep doing it,” she added. “We are going to do it even bigger and better next year.”