Hundreds of people take the plunge for a good cause

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - On Saturday, more than 200 people gathered at the Pilot Family YMCA in Knoxville to do the Polar Plunge to raise money for Special Olympics Tennessee athletes.

Justin Bradford, director of marketing for Special Olympics Tennessee said people began registering for the event since November 2022, so the cold weather wouldn’t stop them from taking the plunge.

“It’ll be nice and brisk to really wake you up in the morning, but it’s going to be great because that’s the whole point of it to raise money, take the little bit of suffering because you raised a lot of money for such a great cause as well,” Bradford said.

Some people created teams to increase the ability of raising money for the organization and got into character by wearing costumes for a costume contest.

Michael Thomas and his team dressed up as Disney villains and raised more than $1,100 for Special Olympics Tennessee.

“So, every year we just get together as a group and we just like kind of decide what our theme is going to be that year. So, this year we choose Disney villains,” Thomas said.

Bradford told WVLT News that Special Olympics Tennessee was able to raise more than $39,000 for the athletes.

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