Community Corner

[VIDEO] Special O's Torch Run Plunge

Under sunny skies, more than 100 people took the plunge at Goddard Park to raise money for Rhode Island Special Olympics.


It wasn't Jan. 1, but it wasn't July 1 either on Sunday, when Special Olympics Rhode Island held its sixth annual Torch Run Plunge at . More than 100 people got wet, with twice that many there in support.

Donna Sawyer of East Greenwich was one of the plungers. Her grandson Charlie is a member of North Kingstown Special Olympics. After Sawyer heard about the plunge, she consulted with Charlie's big brother Christopher, a third grader at Meadowbrook Farms, and the two of them decided they would do it together.

Students from Central Falls High School raised $2,500 for the plunge — 25 people from Central Falls took the plunge.

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Participants like Scott Maranda of Warwick were not at all thrilled with getting wet, but were doing it to show support. His girlfriend's son is a Special Olympics participant.

"I don't go in the water in the middle of July — this is really going to hurt," he said before the plunge. But getting out of the water afterwards, Maranda was singing a different tune: "Not bad!"

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