Balmy Weather Greets Polar Plungers

NEBRASKA CITY- With 70 degree temperatures out of the water Saturday, the Southeast Polar Plunge  looked like a swim meet, complete with penguins and work boots.

Katie Kellar said the Polar Plunge at Nebraska City was the last event of this season for Special Olympics Nebraska, which raised about $215,000 with plunges at Kearney, Omaha, Lincoln, Panhandle and Chadron.

 

Kellar: “We’ve had a pretty mild season, but this was definitely the best day we’ve had as far as weather goes, so it was really nice to end with great weather. I think the setting for the Southeast Plunge at Nebraska. It’s the perfect pond. It’s just a beautiful setting.”

 

Among the teams on Saturday was the Nebraska City police, led by Casey Fertig, who jumped on the Walmart team last year when they had to cut through 14 inches of ice on Wildwood Pond.

 

 

 

Fertig: “We just decided to get a team. A little less prepared than the troopers , uh, I see them walking around in penguin outfits, so next  year we’ll have more game.”

 

 

Ted Bernard interviewed Trooper Bill Rowell about following the Polar Plunge rules with penguin feet.

 

 

 

Bernard: “The first thing I heard you say is keep your shoes on and then somebody said they didn’t want to and you said, ‘oh, go ahead and take them off.’

Rowell: “Well, that’s the trooper mentally, we always let it slide, right?

 

 

 

State Sen. Julie Slama, who became the youngest person ever to preside over the state Legislature this winter, topped it off with her first Polar Plunge.

Slama: “I’m here out supporting a great cause  -- the Special Olympics of Nebraska – and it’s something I am going to make a yearly tradition from here on out. I don’t think it will be as nice as it was this year though.”

Providing their services for the polar plunge was a dive team out of Cass County and Otoe County Emergency Management.