Imagine yourself standing on the pristine beach in Rehoboth, staring up at a bluebird sky and glancing down at the lapping tide before jumping into the water. Now imagine thousands of people doing just that but on Sunday, February 2, 2025, when the temperature reflects summer’s balmy breezes.
It’s the Polar Bear Plunge! And it has been happening since 1991. Technically, this Special Olympics fundraiser is known as the Lewes Polar Bear Plunge, and it has an interesting history.
Special Olympics Delaware approached the Lewes Polar Bears Club in 1991 with the proposition of designating one of their plunges to benefit Special Olympics. Members of the Lewes Polar Bears Club have taken the plunge since 1982. The club plunges five times each year at Cape Henlopen State Park on the first Sunday of the month from November through March – except January, when they plunge on New Year’s Day.
The Club agreed to February, and the 1992 February Plunge was dedicated to Special Olympics Delaware. It was the beginning of what has become one of the most significant and successful fundraisers in the state of Delaware.
At the inaugural event, 78 people took the plunge at Cape Henlopen State Park and raised $7,000. The Plunge moved to Rehoboth Beach in 1998. Because the 2021 event was virtual-only due to Covid, the following year it became a virtual and in person fundraiser The 2024 Plunge was a record-breaking year in both number of participants and dollars raised – 4,380 Bears raised $1.5 million!
You don’t have to take the Plunge yourself to support the effort. It’s also a “spectator sport”. Many simply donate directly to the Special Olympics or to one of the “Bears” or “Bear” Team.
One of those teams – the White Caps – is headed up by Aspen Meadows resident Shelley Stevens.
Stevens started doing the Plunge in 2020, right before Covid. She and her friend Peg Wilfong thought it would be “fun” to jump in the cold Atlantic and support a great cause! Stevens had volunteered for the Special Olympics at a University of Delaware event at the University of Delaware prior to her first Plunge by volunteering at a track and field event for the organization.
She gets her teammates by outreaching via Facebook and emailing friends “to see if they are crazy enough to join me in the plunge,” she says. “There are four of us so far, including Peg, Fran Slabonik and Denise Cleaver”. Others have joined over the years Stevens says that she and Peg have always gone all the way in, but she is not sure how many more years that will happen! Stevens and her buddies have raised about $3,500 over the past four years and already have raised about $1,000 for the 2025 event.
Polar Bear weekend is not just about the Plunge. It is a full schedule of events Friday through Sunday including sand sculpture presentations, a 5K Run, Jolly Trolly tours, and Bear discounts at local restaurants and retailers.
The spectacle of watching thousands of volunteers race into the water and then quickly back is worth the trip to downtown Rehoboth and it is a golden opportunity to support a worthy cause.
Those who do want to register can do so HERE.
By Mary Jo Tarallo, Resident Journalist
Mary Jo Tarallo spent much of her career in public relations with various non-profits and spent 40 years involved with the ski industry as a journalist, public relations director for a national trade association and as executive director of the Learn to Ski and Snowboard initiative. Prior to her ski industry involvement she worked for the Maryland International Center in Baltimore and United Way of Central Maryland. She won a Gold Award for TV programming for a United Way simulcast that starred Oprah Winfrey. She has been cited for her work by numerous organizations. Mary Jo grew up in Baltimore, attended the University of Maryland and Towson University, lived in Washington, DC for 21 years and has been a full time resident of Rehoboth Beach and Milton since May 2019.
