Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie will host their first Polar Plunge fundraising events this weekend, with locals invited to brave the winter water in support of Special Olympics athletes on the Mid North Coast.
The Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) Polar Plunge comes to Jetty Beach, Coffs Harbour, on Saturday, 8 August, followed by Westport Jetty, Port Macquarie, on Sunday, 9 August. Both are new additions to this year’s plunge calendar.
LETR NSW President Scott Whyte said the pair marked new ground for the fundraiser. “It’s the first year for both Coffs and Port,” he said. “It’s a fabulous thing that we’re doing.”
At Coffs Harbour, plungers are expected to jump from a platform into the water at Jetty Beach. Mr Whyte said the format could change depending on conditions. “Safety is one of the things we have to be very concerned with,” he said. If the weather turns or the tide isn’t right, the Coffs Harbour event may switch to a beach run into the water instead.
Port Macquarie’s event at Westport Jetty sits on the river rather than the open ocean, near the town green.
Registrations for both towns were sitting at around 70 plungers each in the lead up to the weekend, with Port Macquarie’s numbers building a little more slowly than Coffs Harbour’s.
The Polar Plunge is part of the Law Enforcement Torch Run, a police-led fundraising movement for Special Olympics that began in the United States. Mr Whyte said it started small. “In 1981, a police chief in Wichita, Kansas was approached to have some of his officers run with a torch from police headquarters to a high school where Special Olympics Kansas were holding their summer games,” he said. Five officers took part, and that year they raised $900.
Forty five years on, the picture looks very different. “We go forward 45 years and collectively we’ve raised over 1.1 billion US dollars,” Mr Whyte said. He said the Torch Run now has around 100,000 law enforcement officers taking part worldwide, across about 25 countries. “I quite proudly tell people in the cops, we’re the largest policing charity in the world,” he said.
The Australian arm of the movement began in 2002, when a retired NSW police assistant commissioner asked the then police commissioner to support a torch relay ahead of the Special Olympics national games in Sydney, running the flame from the Victorian border at Albury into the city.
Mr Whyte, who joined the cause in 2006, said he and the other founding members were not personally connected to the disability community. “None of us have any family or friends with intellectual disabilities; that’s not why we do it,” he said. “I certainly saw it as something that was worthwhile. We’re helping people in the community who actually need help.”
Money raised through registrations and fundraising largely stays local. Every dollar collected is lodged with Special Olympics Australia, then distributed to fund requests from clubs. “Every cent of it is lodged in a Special Olympics Australia bank account,” Mr Whyte said. Money raised by a local team is returned almost in full to that area’s Special Olympics club, while the $30 registration fee goes into a central pool used to support funding requests from clubs across the country.
Mr Whyte pointed to what that support can grow into over time. Sydney’s Illawarra club used to raise about $900 a year from a Bunnings sausage sizzle. After joining the Polar Plunge, that jumped to $26,000 in its first year, then $42,000 this year. Sydney South, one of the original clubs involved when the plunge began at Cronulla, raised $82,000 this year, well ahead of the roughly $15,000 its annual golf day used to bring in. “We just get a kick out of seeing what gets done with the money,” Mr Whyte said.
Closer to home, Special Olympics Mid North Coast, based in Port Macquarie, recently received a $5,000 grant to help send athletes to Campbelltown for ten-pin bowling. “They’re taking 25 athletes down to Campbelltown for ten-pin bowling in about two weeks’ time,” Mr Whyte said, adding the trip required hiring a bus and booking accommodation for what amounts to a three-day trip.
A coffee van will be on hand at Coffs Harbour to help plungers warm up afterwards, with the vendor donating a dollar from every coffee sold on the day. “That day they’re giving me a dollar from every coffee,” Mr Whyte said.
For those nervous about taking the plunge, Mr Whyte had some reassurance. “You might get wet, you might get cold, but you’ll actually feel good about it afterwards,” he said. He said the events move quickly, with no need to linger in the cold water. “All they have to do is get wet,” he said.
Those who would rather stay dry can still help. “It would be great if the community would get behind their other community members with intellectual disabilities by throwing, just donating a few dollars,” Mr Whyte said. “If someone’s reading your paper and says, well, this is actually a good cause, I could spare $20, they can just jump on it and donate it.”
Registrations and donations for both the Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie Polar Plunge are open now at include.specialolympics.com.au/polar-plunge
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