Photo from the Butler University Ambassadors for Special Olympics Indiana Twitter account.

MORGAN SKERIES & RAE STOFFEL | STAFF REPORTERS | mskeries@butler.edu & rstoffel@butler.edu

Students all across campus are getting ready to take the plunge for Special Olympics. The Polar Plunge is a special event that happens every year in February to raise money and awareness for Special Olympics. This year, the event takes place Feb. 4.

Butler students have been reaching out to friends and family through social media to help raise money for the cause. The website Gofundme.com has been popular this year for collecting donations.

Each participant can create their own individual Gofundme page and can post the link on any social media platform to help raise money for their individual goals.

So far, Butler has raised more than $32,000, but with less than a week until the plunge, they are still $13,000 under their goal.

Megan Borries, the president of Butler Ambassadors for Special Olympics, is very excited about this year’s plunge.

“We’ve got an increase in participants since last year and we’re doing a lot more to get people to register,” Borries said.

This year, BASO hosted a “super sign up day” to encourage students to sign up for the cause. More than 350 people signed up, almost doubling the organization’s goal.

“We’re definitely doing better than we were last year at this time,” Borries said. “We have more people registered and more money raised and we’ve still got a week to go.”

Borries, along with the rest of the BASO team, said she is very excited for the plunge and can not wait to see how much more they can raise before Saturday.

Alice Moore, a first-year student and plunge participant, is also excited.

“I signed up because I’ve never done [a plunge] before, they seem like fun and it raises money for the Special Olympics,” Moore said.

Moore said the Special Olympics is very important to her because she has worked with special-needs students for many years. In high school, she was involved in Best Buddies, a program that pairs special-needs students with someone from their school.

“We did activities like going to the movies and bowling and stuff,” she said. “It was just a way for them to make friends.”

Moore said she is not looking forward to freezing but thinks it will be fun and is for a good cause.

Parker Hiday, another first-year participant, was involved in a plunge last year and wants to continue to participate.

“I did a plunge last year with my softball team,” Hiday said. “I think it’s just something fun to do, and it’s for a great cause.”

Hiday also worked with special-needs students and said she holds the Special Olympics dear to her heart.

“When I was in high school, I was a [teacher’s assistant] in a classroom for special-needs students,” Hiday said. “I basically spent all my time with them. I loved doing it.”

Both Moore and Hiday raised $75 each for the plunge.

This year’s plunge will take place at 9:00 a.m. at the Health and Recreation Center this Saturday.