Cold freezes out town’s Polar Plunge

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Kohn admitted he may not be the best person to gauge whether or not the conditions were safe but still has total support for the event coordinators’ and city ofcials’ decision to cancel.

“The temperatures don’t bother me. I run in 100-degree weather,” Kohn said. “But there are plenty of people, I’m sure, who might not have that experience. It could have been more of a danger for them. It could have been a danger for me. Who knows? I’ve never jumped into frigid temperatures in frigid waters before, so God knows what could have happened to folks.”

While safety for attendees was a reason for the plunge to be canceled, Hofman said that it was also to preserve the resources of local frst responders. The Fire Department is present during the plunge with divers in the water and she said it would have been a better use of their time to be able to respond to other emergencies throughout the town due to the extreme weather.

So the North Hempstead Polar Plunge had to be canceled, and due to short notice and an already scheduled calendar, Hofman said they will not be rescheduling another plunge in town. The money raised, all $35,000 of it, will still be donated despite the plunge not occurring.

Hofmann said the 50 planned plungers of North Hempstead have been invited to join another plunge. The next one is scheduled for March 25 in Oyster Bay and about 600 plungers are expected.

“It’s important for [participants] to still come out and plunge because the mission behind it all is that they would be freezing to raise awareness for the athletes of the Special Olympics,” Hofmann said. “So this is their way to still honor the donations they collected and to come out and really make a diference in the community.”

Hofman said about half of the plungers from North Hempstead plan to join the swim in Oyster Bay. Kohn said he doesn’t think he’ll be one of them but plans to try again next year.

“[North Hempstead is] where I work, it’s where my congregants live, so I felt a little bit closer, more of an afnity to this one,” Kohn said.

The motto of the Polar Plunge is “Freezin’ for a Reason,” but that reason is not to subject one to dangerous environments.

“It really starts with the cause,” Kohn said. “Special Olympics does incredible things for people. It gets people to push themselves, to try something a little more extreme. So you combine that with the cause then it’s a better combination in my opinion.”