Spring Break
Teachers get dunked for good cause
Michael Vitron
Issue date: 10/23/09 Section: News
Students had the opportunity to dunk professors and classmates Oct. 14 as Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and the School of Education teamed up to kick off the 2009 Polar Plunge.
Polar Plunge, under the motto "Freezin' for a reason," is a student-run program to raise money for the New York chapter of the Special Olympics. "Buoyant Bonnies" team members who collect $25 or more in donations will be bused to Hamburg, N.Y., Dec. 6 where they will plunge themselves into Lake Erie, program managers Katie Peek, Integrated Marketing Communications graduate student, and Blair Freeman, an education graduate student, said.
Special Olympics New York's mission is "to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for all children and adults with intellectual disabilities, including mental retardation giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of skills and friendship with their families, Special Olympics athletes and the community," according to www.nyso.org.
The team has set a fundraising goal for $10,000 and 100 members, according to www.polarplunge.kintera.org, the team's official Web site. As of Oct. 21, the site reports the team has raised $1,991.00 and has 71 members.
Peek said the goal of $10,000 was not coincidental.
"This year we chose $10,000 because (Buffalo) State (University) last year did $6,000 so we wanted to compete with them a little bit," Peek said.
SIFE will continue its efforts with special needs students when it travels to the Bahamas over winter break, Peek said.
"We are really close with this one school, it's called the Beacon School and it's all special needs students. They put all their special needs students in one school down there, so we are going to do a (miniature) Special Olympics with them," she said.
"It was a way for us to tie our projects together."
Polar Plunge, under the motto "Freezin' for a reason," is a student-run program to raise money for the New York chapter of the Special Olympics. "Buoyant Bonnies" team members who collect $25 or more in donations will be bused to Hamburg, N.Y., Dec. 6 where they will plunge themselves into Lake Erie, program managers Katie Peek, Integrated Marketing Communications graduate student, and Blair Freeman, an education graduate student, said.
Special Olympics New York's mission is "to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for all children and adults with intellectual disabilities, including mental retardation giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of skills and friendship with their families, Special Olympics athletes and the community," according to www.nyso.org.
The team has set a fundraising goal for $10,000 and 100 members, according to www.polarplunge.kintera.org, the team's official Web site. As of Oct. 21, the site reports the team has raised $1,991.00 and has 71 members.
Peek said the goal of $10,000 was not coincidental.
"This year we chose $10,000 because (Buffalo) State (University) last year did $6,000 so we wanted to compete with them a little bit," Peek said.
SIFE will continue its efforts with special needs students when it travels to the Bahamas over winter break, Peek said.
"We are really close with this one school, it's called the Beacon School and it's all special needs students. They put all their special needs students in one school down there, so we are going to do a (miniature) Special Olympics with them," she said.
"It was a way for us to tie our projects together."
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