2022 Polar Plunge

2022+Polar+Plunge

On Saturday, January 29, the 2022 Polar Plunge was held at Sands Ocean Club,  a special event that takes place to raise money for the Special Olympics. It provides year round sports training and competition for more than 30,707 children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

This year was extra spectacular due to South Carolina experiencing flurries on Saturday morning thanks to Winter Storm Kenan, which brought heavy snow and wind to the Northeastern States.

Marcus Rhodes is the director of the Polar Plunge Horry County, South Carolina. Rhodes was CFHS’s SRO officer from 2001 to 2011. 

“We started Polar Plunge in an effort to get our community engaged with the law enforcement fundraising for the Special Olympics. We felt like the great folks in our area would love the Special Olympics athletes as much as we did and would have fun with the plunge too,” Marcus Rhodes said.

AP Human Geography teacher Toni McDowell, along with Rho Kappa (CFHS’s Social Studies Honor Society), participated in this year’s event. This year, their team passed their goal of $500 by raising over $542! 

McDowell shares, “I have been involved in the Polar Plunge since the first year it started because I had the pleasure of working with Marcus Rhodes at CFHS many years ago.  I took over organizing it for CFHS students when I returned to the school and found out that our involvement had stopped.  Rho Kappa National Social Studies has led our efforts in raising money for the Special Olympics for the past five years.”

The plungers raised more than $76,000 this year, which is a huge accomplishment. 

Junior John Sumter was well-prepared and showed up in his wetsuit.

“Despite the snow, my heart was warmed while helping out at the Special Olympics for the second year in a row. For me, that’s what being a Panther is all about!”

CFHS is looking forward to next year’s Polar Plunge and hoping there will be more participants from our school! And who knows, maybe we will see more snow!