Team Andrews chills out for charity

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Amaani Lyle
  • 459th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs Office
Slim temperatures and generous donations met at the Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge at Sandy Point Park here Saturday. 

Team Andrews members of the 459th Air Refueling Wing and the 79th Medical Wing were among nearly 9,000 people who voluntarily jumped into the Chesapeake Bay to raise money for Special Olympics Maryland. According to the event's Web site, organizers listed proceeds at more than $3 million. 

Tech. Sgt. Warren Hiller, 459th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, organized the wing's nine-member team, Crazy Yankee, which brought more than $1,300 in donations to the table. 

"I feel great - I think I finally warmed up," Sergeant Hiller said a couple of days after the event. 

Sergeant Hiller added that his team members already look forward to participating in next year's Polar Bear Plunge, the daylong festival featuring live music, food and most of all, bone-numbing water. 

Some participants, such as Cassandra Tressler, better known as Miss Maryland, U.S.A. 2008, opted to stay out of the water, but still showed their support for the fundraising cause. 

The event's popularity prompted organizers to add several plunges to the day's agenda to accommodate the daring dippers. One team, known as the Super Plungers, amazingly pledged to take one frosty dip, each hour, for 24 hours beginning Friday. 

Temperatures remained in the 30s or below throughout the day, and though heated tents buffered the chill of freezing water on die-hard dippers, most people quickly learned that the more clothing they donned in the water, the more they froze when they returned to dry land.