The morning air is cold as group after group plunges into the Willamette River. Group after group walks into the river and either decides to wade up to their chests or dunk their entire heads in the water. Staff members Shana Hains, Chris Hains, and Max White, as well as some students, line the way out of the water to give high fives and cheers to the exiting plungers. This is a yearly occurrence not just for the state of Oregon, but for places all around the world. It’s been about 14 years since West Albany High School (WAHS) started to participate in Polar Plunge, a fundraising event for the Special Olympics, which is a program that provides year-round sports training and competitions for people with intellectual disabilities.

It started with a group of leadership kids who decided to bring the idea of doing the Polar Plunge as a group to Erik Idhe, the WAHS leadership teacher. Ever since then, it has been a yearly tradition for WAHS to do the plunge as a group, with White running around the gym in a polar bear costume at one of the pep rallies before the Polar Plunge.

It has evolved over the years, as today the group that plunges is made up of leadership, AP Biology, and other students. AP Biology started to join leadership around 7 years ago because of Hains. Some of the other students are people who are there again after taking the class. White was one of the reasons Hains decided to join West Albany with some of her students.

This event has had many more participants in years past, with around 50 students plunging. Because of these numbers, leadership has received multiple trophies that the organizers would hand out to the High School with the largest numbers.