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Hundreds around state took to icy water for Special Olympics

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. (AP) – Hundreds around the state took to icy water in freezing temperatures this weekend to raise money for the Special Olympics.

“It’s invigorating!” said Seamus MacHendry, of Racine. “It’s a grand, fun time!”

He was one of more than 300 who jumped into Lake Andrea at Prairie Springs Park Saturday, when it was 25 degrees.

MacHendry was part of the Clan Ironwolf, a group that regularly attends the Bristol Renaissance Faire. They went in donning historic garb.

They raised about $7,000 of that event’s estimated $60,000.

The Pleasant Prairie plunge was one of four Saturday, with others being held in Oshkosh, Wausau and Howard, near Green Bay.

According to the Special Olympics Wisconsin Web site, the group has raised more than $6 million since they started doing the plunges 10 years ago.

There were five others this month and the last one will at Black River Beach in La Crosse March 1. In Howard, where it was only a degree warmer than Pleasant Prairie, more than 300 plungers raised about $70,000.

They jumped into a 20-foot-wide hole cut into the quarry ice behind the Watering Hole. The water was about 5 feet deep and had a submerged staircase to help plungers get out of the water.

Some wore grass skirts and flowered leis, swimming suits, thermal underwear, fairy costumes, Smurfs costumes and one group even dressed as the cast of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Mike Simon of Howard dressed as Hugh Heffner and jumped in with six women, all wearing bunny ears.

“We have a lot of fun,” Simon said, walking back to the heated changing areas, his pajamas soaked. “We’ve done this a couple of times and always had a good time.”

In Wausau, 339 people participated at Sunnyvale Man Made Park and raised about $50,000. Rhinelander resident Bill Lopas jumped as part of an Elvis trio that raised $3,500 online.

“Dang, that’s good,” said Lopas, 42, on his way out of the 36-degree water.