On March 6th, dozens of students and staff participated in the Polar Plunge at Belleville High School. This event raised around $15,000 for Special Olympics, which has been extremely helpful to our unified department. The Unified Tigers’ season ended on March 3rd, so this was a fun way to cap it off. They finished the season with only one loss, and their biggest win came at home against Dearborn with a score of 26 to 56.
The plunge started at 9:00 a.m. and ended around 10:00 a.m. Jumpers met in the auditorium at 8:30 a.m. to collect prizes for the amount of money they raised, then headed outside to jump. To be able to jump, jumpers had to raise ten or more dollars. In total, Unified Sports crushed their goal of $10,000 and raised around $15,000. There were many jumpers with the line wrapping around the sidewalk.
Ms. Sprague was excited to state, “Most of the money raised went directly to Special Olympics so they can continue to provide opportunities like this and others, and another portion of the money is coming back to BHS for us to spend on Unified sports equipment and events.” Our unified department is exceedingly grateful for everyone who came and jumped, to those who came to support us, and to the Special Olympics for giving us this opportunity.
The Special Olympics Website states: “Special Olympics supports over 5 million athletes, unified partners, coaches, and volunteers with 32 Olympic-type Sports.” Special Olympics also collaborates with schools and communities to improve health, promote inclusion, and provide leadership opportunities. Unified Sports is just one of the many organizations that fall under the Special Olympics umbrella.
Special Olympics not only helped us with the Polar Plunge, but they have been helping the Unified Department for the past few years. They have paid for conferences for staff to go which have helped grow our program and provide more opportunities for students. In addition, they facilitated and paid for the Leadership Launch and provided funds, resources, and support for our Unified teams. The Unified teams along with our school are appreciative of Special Olympics for providing us with this amazing event and all they do for us.
