Local news, sports, weather presented by the WDIO News Team
Despite the brisk, cold weather, supporters of Minnesota Special Olympics made the jump into Lake Superior for the 24th annual Duluth Polar Bear Plunge.
“The athlete community is kind of an underserved community and they’re really supportive of a lot of events in Duluth especially. So, it’s good to kind of show the same support to them. And the Duluth Police Department has a really good relationship with especially the athletes. They have to go out and volunteer their time to spend time with them and be with them,” said Officer Jeremy O’Connor of the Duluth Police Department.
Supporters traveled from across the state to join in on the cause, including Katherine Merideth of the Dairy Divers team – who also participated in the Rochester Polar Plunge on February 8th.
“We’ve wanted to come up to the Duluth Polar Plunge, gosh, we wanted to come up here for quite a few years. And we finally just took the plunge and brought my two kids along and met some people online from the Duluth area and we kind of connected and made a second team up here,” said Merideth.
Merideth has spent her life supporting the Minnesota Special Olympics, which is what drew her to the Minnesota Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunges.
“My philosophy behind this is people with intellectual disabilities live with that every single day of their life, 24-7, 365. If I can’t jump into an icy cold body of water for 30 seconds, there’s a problem with me,” said Merideth.
Duluth’s 24th annual Polar Bear Plunge raised $142,601 for the Minnesota Special Olympics as of February 15th. To donate to the Minnesota Special Olympics through the Duluth Polar bear Plunge, click here.
