Loudouners Participate in "Polar Plunge"

by Gina Faber

Saturday morning, January 21, was the day that I was due to jump into the cold waters of the Potomac River. In fact, three of us from Western Loudoun had raised pledges from friends in support of our icy adventure. But with forecasts for snow and icy road conditions for that morning, Tony Noerpel made the executive decision the night before that we would instead pull the cover back and plunge into his (unheated) backyard pool in rural Lovettsville. So that's what we did.

Saturday morning, the three of us convened at noon, dressed in our pre-plunge attire. Rather than listening to pre-plunge professional musicians and motivational speeches offered at the official plunge site in National Harbor, Maryland, Tony played a little mandolin, and we posed in front of the fireplace for our "official photographers."

Out to the pool we went with our towels and robes. The pool water temperature: 37 degrees. The outside temp: 30 degrees. Tony went in first, followed by Des, and then me who, in a rush to get in there before Tony got out, never got out of my sweatshirt! As soon as the photographic evidence was deemed sufficient, we got out of there as fast as we could. Total immersion time: at least one minute. Photos reveal that my mouth was open the entire time--I was screaming!
Fortunately, our "crew" furnished us with towels and smiles, and we headed inside to imbibe "warming" concoctions.

Tony, Des and I would like to thank the 40 individual donors who allowed us to raise $2500 in the "Keep Winter Cold" Annual Polar Plunge, an event to raise money for the regional Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Tony Noerpel is known to many as the Founder of Sustainable Loudoun, and serves on the Board for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Gina Faber and Des Coghlan are active members of both organizations. u