Hundreds take a cold dip in the Columbia River for a good cause

Anthony Nash wore a blue bathrobe over his swim trunks as he waited to jump into the Columbia River on Saturday morning.

The Special Olympics athlete and 11-year veteran of the Polar Plunge Tri-Cities said he was getting ready to dive into the near-freezing water by getting used to cold.

“I go to the very end of the dock,” he said. “I just jump in and swim and go into the hot tub.”

Nash, 33, started participating in Special Olympics when he was 8, and competed in softball, soccer, bowling and speed skating. The plunge allows him to show his independence.

“Some people look at us like they need to hold our hand,” he said. “I look at it as a way to prove ... we can do anything if we put our mind to it.”

Nash was one of more than 200 people braving the 40-degree water at the end of Columbia Park docks to raise money for the Special Olympics as part of the 11th annual Polar Plunge.

While it was the first plunge for Robert Jones Jr. and his son, Robbie Jones, they weren’t concerned about temperatures. They participate in Spartan Races and other similar events across the country.

“We do an event called the Tough Mudder, and they have a thing they call the Arctic Enema,” Robert Jones said, wearing a leather mask designed to look like a Spartan helmet.

“It’s probably 10, 15, 20 degrees colder than this,” Robbie Jones added.

They were excited to get into the water.

Some participants were too chicken to get into the water, including John LaFemina, who helped the team from Battelle raise at least $6,480. He was responsible for $4,860 of it, according to the event’s website.

LaFemina, the interim deputy director for science and technology at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was wearing a yellow chicken suit for the seventh year.

“I own my own chicken suit,” he said.

He joined the chicken coop after many years of friendship with Kennewick police Sgt. Randy Maynard. The officer kept trying to get LaFemina to participate.

“I would tell him he was nuts,” LaFemina said. “There is no way I’m going to jump into the freezing river, and then finally one year he told me, ‘No, no, no. There is this chicken coop option.”

The option, which kept LaFemina out of the water, allowed him to participate, and he decided if he was going to be part of the chicken coop, he should look the part.

“I convinced a friend of mine to do this with me and she beat me to the only chicken suit in the Tri-Cities that you can rent,” he said.

The Battelle team was the top fundraiser for the event, and LaFemina said the four team members were active in drumming up support.

“We’ve got a great community out at the lab ... and a great community in the community,” he said. “I asked my friends at Leadership Tri-Cities, and Boys & Girls Clubs and other places, and people just responded.”

While registrations for plunges dipped across the state this year, Kennewick police Officer Shirrell Veitenheimer said they were happy with the number of late entrants.

“Numbers are climbing, so we’re happy about it,” she said. “It’s a fun thing that brings the community together for an awesome cause.”

Most of the money raised helps local athletes by allowing them to purchase equipment, rent facilities and send athletes to tournaments.

Donate online at tricitiesplunge2017.kintera.org.

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Hundreds take a cold dip in the Columbia River for a good cause."