{"id":104999,"date":"2025-02-28T10:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T16:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=104999"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:05:51","slug":"watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Chicagoans race into icy Lake Michigan to celebrate annual Polar Plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By Peggy Helman<br \/>\n<\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medill Reports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the 33-degree water temperature of Lake Michigan, plungers were excited to dive in to raise money for Chicago families in need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s ice cold. My feet feel like they\u2019re falling off,\u201d plunger Gavin Higgins said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a city known for its long and frigid winters, thousands of Chicagoans plunged into the lake to celebrate the Polar Bear Club\u2019s annual Polar Plunge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Polar Bear Club, which hosts the plunge every January at Oak Street Beach, raised more than $115,000 dollars. Since its inception in 2002, the event has raised over $650,000 dollars. Attendance has also grown from just three participants in the first plunge to more than a thousand this year, with more spectators and donors present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Chicago Polar Plunge\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1059939872?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TRANSCRIPT:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abigail Grenz: \u201cToday we are here to do the cold plunge for the Polar Bear Club. It\u2019s probably like 30 degrees right now, and we\u2019re going to go swimming, because why not? What else would we want to do on a cold day in January?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey\u2019re raising money for six different Chicago families, so we paid an admission \u2013 $30 \u2013 to help these families. We raised some money for them. It\u2019s just a great way to get the community together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTo me, like, I take hot showers, so I\u2019m not prepared for this. But it\u2019s gonna be a fun experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy goal is just two deep breaths, watch some other people\u2019s reactions of them getting in the water, and that\u2019s really it. Just, probably 30 seconds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gavin Higgins: \u201cIt\u2019s ice cold.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kyle Miller: \u201cIt felt great.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Higgins: \u201cMy feet feel like they\u2019re falling off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miller: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t ask for a more beautiful day to be honest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Higgins: \u201cAfterwards, it\u2019s like, I feel alive, alert. It\u2019s a good feeling. I feel like I\u2019m still chattering, like inside.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly Gawlik: \u201cIt\u2019s just something\u2026 nobody does it, nobody talks about it, so like, why not do it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re in there, and you\u2019re under, and the cold \u2013 it stops your body for a little bit. And then you get out, and you just have to reset yourself. It\u2019s amazing. It is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peggy Helman is an MSJ candidate at Northwestern University. She is specializing in video and broadcast journalism.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Peggy Helman Medill Reports Despite the 33-degree water temperature of Lake Michigan, plungers were excited to dive in to raise money for Chicago families in need. \u201cIt\u2019s ice cold. My feet feel like they\u2019re falling off,\u201d plunger Gavin Higgins said. In a city known for its long and frigid winters, thousands of Chicagoans plunged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002,"featured_media":105005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5251,5061,28,5542,5487],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-chicago","category-featured","category-general-interest","category-msj25","category-winter-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WATCH: Chicagoans race into icy Lake Michigan to celebrate annual Polar Plunge - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WATCH: Chicagoans race into icy Lake Michigan to celebrate annual Polar Plunge - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Peggy Helman Medill Reports Despite the 33-degree water temperature of Lake Michigan, plungers were excited to dive in to raise money for Chicago families in need. \u201cIt\u2019s ice cold. My feet feel like they\u2019re falling off,\u201d plunger Gavin Higgins said. In a city known for its long and frigid winters, thousands of Chicagoans plunged [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-28T16:42:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-01T22:05:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-28-at-10.41.00\u202fAM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1116\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"585\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"peggyhelman2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"peggyhelman2025\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"peggyhelman2025\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c3444e0c00b5f8dc81b3a77f0a761ee8\"},\"headline\":\"WATCH: Chicagoans race into icy Lake Michigan to celebrate annual Polar Plunge\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-28T16:42:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-01T22:05:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/Screenshot-2025-02-28-at-10.41.00\u202fAM.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; Culture\",\"Chicago\",\"Featured\",\"General Interest\",\"MSJ25\",\"Winter 2025\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/watch-chicagoans-race-into-icy-lake-michigan-to-celebrate-annual-polar-plunge\\\/\",\"name\":\"WATCH: Chicagoans race into icy Lake Michigan to celebrate annual Polar Plunge - 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