Evergreen Lake Plunge Goes Off Without A Hitch
People in Evergreen were back for the Evergreen Lake Plunge on New Year's Day. Over 160 jumpers took on challenging temperatures in the teens to jump into the icy water.
The event kicks off at noon each New Year's Day at Evergreen Lake. It was canceled earlier this year when the organization that ran it stepped away.
Active 4 All, a nonprofit devoted to supporting Evergreen Parks and Rec programs stepped in. They plan to use approximately $14,000 raised by jumpers, pledgers and from sponsors to help provide scholarships to families and people hoping to take part in programs and the special needs program known as INSPIRE.
The Lake Plunge always brings out characters. People dressed as elves, Aquaman, New Year's Eve partiers and cartoon characters. Evergreen Fire Rescue fishes people out of the water. CBS4's Alan Gionet has emceed each year and was one of the people who was part of the effort to keep the Plunge going.
"A great success thanks to a lot of hard working volunteers, great local businesses that chipped in and Evergreen Parks and Rec," he said.
He plunged too – although it was more of a dunking. Gionet was thrown in by some of the jumpers, but claimed he'd pull them in with him. One did go in, Steve Hoogendoorn, who had already jumped and was back in dry clothing at the time. Ouch.
Here's a link to pledge jumpers and further support the work of Active 4 All: evergreenlakeplunge.org