Cold as Ice
Teachers, students take Polar Plunge, raise $700 for Special Olympics
Photo contributed by Sally Mroczkowski.
Getting ready to jump in the water, a group of students and band director Loy Studer show off their costumes. “I jumped to support the Special Olympics and the kids that participated with me,” freshman Brylee Grubb Erwin said.
“If I don’t get in the water on Saturday, you all get 25 bonus points.”
When junior Maddie Royal got that Remind 101 message from Coach Owens, her day was made. At the time, Owens was one of the highest earning teachers in the run for the Polar Plunge. The Remind was salvation. To save her AP U.S. History grade, Royal found a jug in the library, made a sign for the front of it and with that, she was off.
In her efforts alone, Royal raised about $30 for another teacher to beat Owens by carrying around the big jug with a sign that said “Save your APUSH grade!”
She said she wanted to see Coach Owens in the water, but her grade was in jeopardy. By the end of the fundraiser, Coach Owens total was $67.87. Low enough to save him from taking the Polar Plunge.
In total, the school raised about $700 for the cause.
“I’d been studying for that test for three hours,” Royal said. “I knew that carrying a jug would save not just my grade, but everyone’s grade, and we really needed the extra credit more.”
The successful push to keep Owens out of the water paid off in more ways than extra credit.
“I didn’t want to jump because it would be cold,” Owens said. “I also wanted to host an AP review session on Saturday, and if I would’ve jumped, I wouldn’t have been able to host it for the students.”
For the last 15 years, Rider has participated in the Polar Plunge. It benefits Special Olympics and all their activities sponsored by the organization. Student council sponsor, Sally Mroczkowski said 10 teachers were nominated for the jump.
The teachers nominated were band director Loy Studer, Spanish teacher Chelsey Fanchier-Alsup, Coach Jeremy Crouch, Spanish teacher Marina King, PALs and math teacher Pamila Brown, APUSH teacher David Owens, Forensics teacher Autumn Weber, Spanish teacher Ethan Shaw, Geography teacher Charity Hartman and math teacher Cheryl Wuthrich. The three people that “earned” the jump were Studer, Crouch and Fancier-Alsup.
Royal had planned on taking the Polar Plunge, but she wasn’t able to.
“I’m a student council officer so I was supposed to jump, but since I was going to be busy, I knew that I had to do something,” Royal said. “This was a good way for me to give back, by raising money for the cause.”