Over 750 general plungers, over 700 school students and a water temp of 40 degrees made for a cold and courageous plunge into the Delaware River Feb. 15. A thousand plus people gathered for the annual polar plunge to benefit the Special Olympics of the Lehigh Valley. Athlete teams, volunteer teams, corporate/sponsor teams and community supporters show up each year for this festive frozen event to raise money and awareness for Special Olympics.

Manager, Marketing & Public Relations for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, Larkin Richards remarked, “This is an event where once you start participating, you look forward to each year. It’s a highlight of the month for many participants and athletes. Of course, we welcome brand-new participants with open arms, but there is a good number of people within the community who have done this plunge four or over five times.”

This year the Lehigh Valley is sending 17-year-old Alpine Skier Alysa Jones, a Greater Lehigh Valley Pocono Region athlete, to represent Team USA at the Special Olympics World Games in Turin, Italy in March. Jones has been training at Blue Mountain Ski Area for this event with coach Janelle Pemberton. Proceeds from events like this benefiting Special Olympics make this possible.

Kicking off this cool celebration was the “Super Plunge” Feb. 14, at The Grand Eastonian. This daring 24-hour event challenged participants to brave the icy waters every hour, on the hour, for an entire day. Each plunge featured a unique theme and delicious treats from sponsored food vendors to keep participants energized and warm. Super plungers lead the general plungers into the Delaware for their 25th plunge in 24-hours Feb 15. In addition, on Feb. 14, there was a special “Sweetheart Splash” in honor of Valentine’s Day. Couples took the literal proverbial plunge at the Grand Eastonian pool.

Special Olympics Pennsylvania hosts nine Polar Plunges around the state to raise funds to support sports, health and leadership programming for the 15,000 athletes the organization serves Special Olympics Pennsylvania around the state.

The Greater Lehigh Valley Pocono Region provides year-round training and competitive sports programs to more than 2,700 children and adults with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities. The program provides training and competitions in more than 20 sports, health and fitness and leadership programs throughout 20 facilities in the region.

Do you want to support this cause without getting taking the plunge? You can donate to the Lehigh Valley Polar Plunge by visiting PlungePA.org and select the Lehigh Valley Plunge location. After you’re on Lehigh Valley’s page, you can select the “register” button. The link that takes you to is the official registration and donate link. There, you will see “donate.” Once you click donate, it’s a step-by-step process to donating to your local Special Olympics Pennsylvania athletes.

The 2025 Lehigh Valley Polar Plunge is made possible thanks to the generous support of its sponsors, including: Sheetz, Wawa, KoC, Toyota, Service Electric, Jersey Mike’s, Guardian Life Insurance, WFMZ, Penske, St. Luke’s, LETR, Amazon, Walmart, Grand Eastonian, Wegman’s and DonutNV.