11th Annual Polar Plunge in Peekskill Slated for New Year’s Day
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Men and women will be celebrating the new year by stripping down to their bathing suits and other swimming attire to raise money for a worthy cause.
For the 11th year, the This is Me Foundation will be holding its Polar Plunge at the Riverfront Green in Peekskill at noon sharp on Monday, Jan. 1, where participants will bravely run into the Hudson River for an exhilarating few seconds.
The This Is Me Foundation, founded by Peekskill residents and sisters Caitlin and Lauren Brady, is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to raise awareness about alopecia, an auto-immune disease that causes hair loss, while giving hope to any individual who faces adversity.
The Brady sisters each struggled with hair loss as teenagers at Peekskill High School but didn’t let many people know they had been diagnosed with alopecia areata—an autoimmune disease.
It wasn’t until January 2011 when they were watching the Miss America Pageant and saw Miss Delaware Kayla Martell take her wig off and reveal she had alopecia they that found the courage to go public with their condition so they could inspire others.
Three weeks later, on Feb. 12, 2011, This is Me Foundation was created as a two-minute YouTube PSA. In January 2012, the Brady sisters began giving college scholarships to local high school seniors enrolled in college who have displayed leadership skills while having faced adversity of any kind or helped others through adversity. The scholarships are presented in honor of their late close friends, Ryan Risco and Cait Chivonne Polhill, and are funded primarily through money donated at the Polar Plunge.
The organization has awarded 125 $500 scholarships locally and nationally since 2012.
The 11h Annual Polar Plunge is sponsored by Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited, Lanza Family Foundation, The Thomas R. Bertoline Youth Athletic Foundation and Rotary Club of Peekskill.
Plungers are required to register by December 30 to participate. No walk-up registration allowed. However, spectators are encouraged to watch and cheer.
If interested in plunging or donating, visit http://www.thisismefoundation.com.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
