Maryland State Police Involvement

Pictured below are two of this year's super plungers, a couple of Maryland's finest, Lt. Michael Sigmund and Capt. Brian Smith.

Lt. Sigmund has passed out awards to the Special Olympics athletes for the past three years. This is his first year doing the Super Plunge. The purpose of raising money for awareness, inclusion and awareness for the athletes and seeing what it does for the athletes is the reason he wants to continue being involved.

Super Plunger Andy Lawless

Meet Andy Lawless, pictured below. This year, 2025, marks three years Andy has been a Super Plunger. This is the 18th year of he has been participating in the Polar Bear Plunge into the Chesapeake Bay in support of Special Olympics Maryland athletes.

Super Plunger Andy Killen

Meet Andy Killen, pictured below, freezin for a reason! To secure his spot as a Super Plunger for 2025 he needed to raise $10,000.

Andy met his goal and raise $10,631 in support of the SOMD ammazing athletes!

Team "Frozen Friends"

Barbara Natoli and Lori “The Action” Plaxen make up Frozen Friends. Barbara had the distinct honor of being a Unified Super Plunge Team in 2022 with athlete Joe Wu. In 2023, Barbara was asked by the Plaxen family to partner with Lori. Barbara was touched and honored to accept the challenge of being a Unified Team with Lori in 2023 and they completed the challenge. They had so much fun that they decided to partner together again in both 2024 and 2025. Being a Unified Plunge Team means that you commit to raising a minimum of $15,000.

Lori has been involved in Special Olympics Maryland since 1999, so she is going on 25 years. In the past, Lori participated in Basketball, Snowshoe and Long-Distance Running. Currently, Lori competes in Powerlifting and Track & Field.

Desi's Dynamic Duo

As told by Rick Barton, Desiree Holland's unified team partner, Desi led the way in SOMD in so many ways. She was among the first Special Olympics athletes in Maryland and especially leading the way in her home county, Prince Georges County.

Desi was the first female Super Plunger and as was her style she kept coming back every year, doing 24 plunges in 24 hours and raising funds to support Special Olympics.

A few years ago Desi teamed up with Rick Barton to form Desi's Dynamic Duo. Together they charged into the water and collected donations. The last plunge of the Super Plunge always became their very special plunge. They danced and Rick would spin and then dip her in the water as they celebrated another great event.

After a long and courageous battle with alzheimer's disease, we lost Desi in 2023. She faced the last year and a half of her life as she did with every challenge, with fierceness, integrity, laughter and her contagious smile for everyone who came to visit. In 2024 Rick continued the tradition of Desi's Dynamic Duo, plunging all 24 times while carrying a cardboard image, as shown in the picture above, of Desi. To honor and keep her memory alive, Desi's Dynamic Duo was back one more time for the 2025 Super Plunge as Rick plunged again in honor of Desi.

Desi’s parents, Candy and Doug Holland, attended Saturday’s event and shared that they miss their daughter every second of every day. Desi’s mother also mentioned the two songs her daughter couldn’t stop listening to before she passed. During the final Super Plunge of 2025, “It’s Raining Men” played as the participants entered the water, and “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” echoed across the shore as they emerged.

Tori Yorgey from WBAL-TV

WBAL-TV's very own Tori Yorgey was among the Super Plungers, and she took her very first plunge when it all started at 10am Friday, January 24th at Sandy Point State Park in Anne Arundel County. "I am dying, I am SO cold!"