Polar Plunge 2015

This year, the HBA Team participated in the Virginia Beach Polar Plunge for the tenth year in a row! Here at HBA, we take every opportunity to support our community in fun and exciting ways. To most normal people, jumping into the Atlantic Ocean in February might not fall under the term “fun”. But, we had a blast and are already pumped up for Polar Plunge 2016.

While last year was the coldest year by far, we got lucky this year as the water temperatures were the warmest they had been in years, rounding out right around 50 degrees! This gave us the opportunity to take it up a notch, and plunge into the water not once, but four times!

Of course, one of the most exciting parts of the Polar Plunge (besides jumping in the water, of course) is seeing all of the costumes that each team comes up with. This year, we dressed up as gnomes! We carefully crafted our entire costume ourselves, from our hats down to our oversized belts. But perhaps the most fun part of the costume creation process was the beards and eyebrows. Everyone gave their gnome costumes a personality with shaggy eyebrows, pencil mustaches and even some sideburns. In hindsight, having wet faux fur surrounding your nose and mouth after you jump in the water may not have been the best choice for a pleasant plunging experience, but it sure was the funniest!

This year we raised $6,700 for Special Olympics of Virginia, an athletic program which gives intellectually disabled children and adults opportunities to develop fitness, build character, and experience the joy of competition in a supportive environment. HBA is always among the top fundraising teams, and this year was no exception. We surpassed our fundraising goal by $1,700 this year, and among the 500+ registered teams, HBA ranked in the top for fundraising. Overall, the 2015 Polar Plunge in Virginia Beach raised more than $1,180,000 for the Special Olympics!

All of us here at HBA want to thank all of our sponsors, who helped make our fundraising goal a reality!