Polar Plunge adds 50/50 draw and raffle to March 7 event
The annual Special Olympics fundraiser is taking place on March 7, whether it’s on Ramsey Lake or in a nearby tank like GSPS organized in 2024
The annual Polar Plunge event wherein people throw themselves into Ramsey Lake in the dead of winter to become human Popsicles is scheduled to take place on March 7.
Organizers with Greater Sudbury Police Service hosted a kickoff event at Moran Mining and Tunnelling in Lively on Monday, in celebration of one of the event’s key sponsors.
The early kickoff is intended to help give participants plenty of time to register, as well as provide an early start for an online 50/50 draw and Too Chicken to Plunge raffle.
The 50/50 draw is brand new to the event, which is already open to Ontarians (the guaranteed payout as of mid-afternoon Monday was $515).
Tickets for both the 50/50 and raffle can be purchased by clicking here, and the deadline to purchase tickets is 11:59 p.m. March 8.
The Too Chicken to Plunge Raffle includes two custom fire pits (retails for $500 and $1,000), a six-barrel sauna ($8,000), Muskoka chairs and a 43-inch television set. There are draw dates of Jan. 12 and March 7 (1 p.m., during the Polar Plunge event).
Money raised during the event itself goes to the provincial Special Olympics organization and is dispensed through the province to help more than 26,000 athletes, while the draw and raffle funds go directly to local Olympians.
“That’s to subsidize the cost of uniforms, travelling, accommodations and all that kind of stuff,” Special Olympics community co-ordinator Lynne Houle said, adding that with many Special Olympians subsisting on ODSP, they don’t have disposable income.
The Greater Sudbury Police Service-hosted Polar Plunge is important not only for raising funds, but for bringing awareness to the Special Olympics, Houle said.
“We work hard at inclusion and being accepted by everyone else in our community so they’re well-known and seen,” she said.
GSPS Staff Sgt. Hally Willmott is one of the annual event’s key organizers, and told Sudbury.com during Monday’s launch event that “it’s the joy we see on the Olympians’ faces” that drives her to participate.
“It’s nice to see people who just enjoy doing things, they just enjoy being out in the community, being out with different people, competing and helping the people they’re competing against,” Willmott said. “It actually is a bright side of humanity.”
Approximately 200 Sudburians took part in last year’s event, which Willmott said was a “diamond in the rough” kind of year, since it followed an early thaw in 2024 which forced the event to take place in a tank instead of in Ramsey Lake like they’ve done since 2014.
“If it’s not frozen in March we’ll just have to pivot because the Olympians deserve it,” Willmott said, adding that warm or cold, they’ll be “freezin’ for a reason” somewhere.
The event will take place on the frigid waters of Ramsey Lake on March 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Primary access to the plunge site will be at 206 Ramsey Lake Rd. (Northern Water Sports Centre), with secondary parking and access at the Ramsey Lake Boat Launch (486 Ramsey Lake Rd.).
On-site amenities will include change rooms, bathrooms, warming stations, saunas and refreshments, including pizza, popcorn and cotton candy.
For more information, including how to register, click here.
By Tyler Clarke, Sudbury.com
