KW Polar Plunge 2012

The KW Polar Plunge for KidsAbility.

 Date: January 28, 2012 Location: Waterloo Town Square Time: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Sponsors: Heffner Scion, Spike|Mobile, Christine Reid Photography & Memory Tree We’re so excited to be a part of this great event! It’s going to be a lot of fun & raise money for a great cause at the same time. Let’s start by talking about how this whole thing came together: Those of you on Twitter may remember a race to 500 followers between Ashley Csanady and myself called the #Twitter500. Ashley had been a speaker at the Social Media Breakfast – Waterloo Region in mid-October when they had their journalism panel to discuss how social media has changed the industry they work in. I had complimented Ashley on her talk and during our conversation she mentioned she’d like to get to 500 followers by Christmas time. Since I was still fairly new to Twitter (and I’m somewhat competitive) I proposed a challenge – a race to 500 followers which then became the #Twitter500. Shortly after leaving the starting gate, we decided we needed to make the stakes more interesting. Ashley proposed the loser (the last person to 500) would participate in a Polar Plunge for the winner’s choice of charity. She also said, should we both cross the finish line within the same week, we should both do the plunge. The latter is exactly what happened. We looked around for a local event already going on, but couldn’t seem to find a Polar Plunge taking place in Waterloo Region during 2012. We decided it would be a better idea to create our own event & to make the donations benefit KidsAbility. During that time Robb Farago of Memory Tree noticed our conversations on Twitter and said he was also looking to plan a Polar Plunge sometime in during the winter. And so it began. We all decided to join forces for the common cause and make it the best event we possibly could. We approached Nick Heffner of Heffner Scion to see if they’d be willing to sponsor the event. After we explained what we were thinking of and what it would take to get there, they were more than happy to help & just as excited as we were about the event. Shortly after, Jacki Yovanoff, Alicia Raimundo & Christine Reid offered to help plan the event as well. Our team of 7 has put together this great event which will be lots of fun and most importantly raise money for a great cause – KidsAbility. Start your own team, or dip on your own. We’re asking that each person looking to plunge raise at least $50. For more information visit our website www.KWPolar.com or our Facebook page. You can also be kept in the loop by texting ‘KWPolar’ to ’54500′. Can’t wait to see all of you there on January 28th!   Greg Lehman