The money will be going towards the Special Olympics, Roots to Harvest, the CNIB, and for the first time, PRO Kids.
THUNDER BAY – Rouphly 300 Thunder Bay residents came by to jump into the freezing waters of Lake Superior Saturday afternoon and things were a little different this year; plunge teams were scheduled over a longer period throughout the day and the event was live-streamed to encourage spectators to watch the event from home.
Event chair, Ryan Gibson, says it’s exciting that so many people have come down to support the charities and plungers.
“Coming out of Covid, I think people are ready to start doing stuff, there’s an energy in the air.. they wanna see people. You can see people hanging around still, they wanna see the plungers. I think this just ties into the energy, it’s a nice way to go into spring, and it’s awesome,” said Gibson.
The excited energy could be felt by both the spectators and the plungers, and everybody was happy to be able to see each other out after two long years inside.
“It’s great to see everyone out here, smiling and having fun. Just to see the friendly smiles on the kids when they see me, and I’ve seen lots of that today,” said Samuel King, plunger.
The event raised over 92 thousand dollars, smashing their 50 thousand dollar fundraising goal and their previous record of 82 grand.
The money will be going towards the Special Olympics, Roots to Harvest, the CNIB, and for the first time, PRO Kids.
Gibson says the Polar Plunge was a huge success and he is grateful for how generous the Thunder Bay community is.
“You know what, I think people in this city, honestly, just love to give back, first of all, for all these worthy causes. And people are crazy here, they want to have a good time, they want to dress up, they want to see each other,” said Gibson.
“And let’s face it, you raise some money for a great cause, you come on down, you jump in the water, I’ve done it a number of times, it’s easy, then you get out, and you got something to talk about.”
source tbnewswatch