Icy dip to raise cash for Special Olympics
Three Geneva police officers and the children and friends of other department employees plan to take a flying leap into the freezing waters of Loon Lake next month.
They will line up with a few hundred other plungers at 1 p.m. March 6 at Silver Springs State Park in Yorkville.
The Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge will be the first fundraiser this year for the Special Olympics, which serves 22,000 people with intellectual disabilities.
For the first time, the Geneva Police department will go as a team – called Team GPD – and are hoping to expand local support.
“This is my second year,” said Sgt. Dan Kott. “Last year I wore shorts and a T-shirt and jumped in that way. It was cold. They had to cut through five inches of ice to clear a spot for us to get into the water. It’s not a swim, it’s a plunge, you get in, get wet, come out. It’s a matter of minutes. But it’s bitter – how numb my feet were.”
Also on the team are Officer Charles Parisi and Sgt. Michael Frieders, Kott’s daughter Kendall Kott, 14, Nicholas Devor, 17, and Stephanie Devor, 25, both of St. Charles, the son and daughter of Joan Devor, a police records clerk; Sami Friel, 15, the daughter of Kim Friel, also a police records clerk, and her friends Forrest Gilbertson and Julia Sutphen, all freshmen at Batavia High School.
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