Marine Corps Base Quantico -- “This water has been pumped from the Rappahannock River just for you!” Ken Falke, founder of the EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) Warrior Foundation, told the nearly 300 participants of the ninth annual Polar Bear Plunge.
On a grey Saturday in February when the temperatures reached only into the low 40s, there was a good chance that river water was very cold.
The plungers were gathered in the parking lot of James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia, steeling themselves up to get soaked by a blast of icy water sprayed from a fire truck. The Plunge turned into a Blast the Thursday prior to the event, when the fire department notified event organizers that the Rappahannock River was too filled with debris from the recent blizzard to be safe, EOD Warrior Foundation event coordinator Matthew Higgins said.
“We’re kind of disappointed not to be plunging, but this was a creative solution!” participant Rebekah Gorsuch said. “The community really came together with short notice.”
Gorsuch and her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Gorsuch, were dressed as Prince Charming and Snow White for the Blast. (Participants are encouraged to get soaked in costume.) Their family has personal experience with the EOD Warrior Foundation, which offers emergency financial relief, education and hope to families affected by EOD injuries and provides maintenance and care for the EOD Memorial at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
“I am a wounded warrior,” Jeremiah Gorsuch, an Army EOD technician, said. “The Foundation really helped me out. They visited me every weekend in Walter Reed and every two weeks once I went to outpatient. Four years later, they’re still in contact.”
“The EOD community is a family, and you help out family,” Gorsuch continued. “It doesn’t matter what service.”
Chuck Schaff, a retired Navy EOD technician, was dressed as Ben Franklin for the Blast. He has participated in the event for all nine years of its existence.
“This is an awesome charity for a worthy cause,” he said. “The costumes add a bit of levity to what can be very somber.”
He recalled one year when a group of soldiers who’d lost limbs in ordnance explosions dressed as victims of shark bite.
“They made light of their own situation,” Schaff said. “That shows character. Those guys protected us from harm and now we’re carrying the torch.”
Sharon Wandrick, Bridget Seitzinger and Rick Williams came to the Blast dressed as the song “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Come Off” by country artist Joe Nichols. Williams was the Tequila Man and Wandrick and Seitzinger were draped in fabric and carrying tequila bottles. Seitzinger said they have been participating in the event since her young nephew suggested it four years ago.
Despite her bare upper chest and arms, Seitzinger said she was actually not cold.
“It’s the adrenaline,” she explained. “It’s like a reunion when you get here.”
One of the youngest plungers was Lyla, 5, who was dressed as Elsa from Frozen. She told event coordinator Beth Souza that she wanted to plunge to “show her dad how brave she is.” Her father was an EOD technician who was killed in Afghanistan.
After the singing of the national anthem and a moment of silence honoring fallen men and women, Falke told the participants that they’d raised $15,000 for the foundation—$4,000 more than last year.
Fredericksburg City Fire Department Truck One turned on the water and firemen lined up participants and waved them into the blast in small groups.
“This is my first time doing this,” said Valja Collingwood, a former Marine. “I’m looking forward to being miserable, cold and wet for a good cause.”
— Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com