2026 North Hempstead Polar Plunge Raises $86,000

North Hempstead’s annual Freezin’ for a Reason Polar Plunge delivered again this March, with more than 100 participants charging into the cold waters of North Hempstead Beach Park in Port Washington to raise over $86,000 for Special Olympics New York. The final tally hit $86,664.27, blowing past the $70,000 fundraising goal by a comfortable margin.

The event, held March 7 at the park on West Shore Road, came a full month later than originally planned. Organizers had set February 7 as the original date, but genuinely dangerous conditions, freezing temperatures and ice on the water, forced officials to push it back. The delay turned out to be the right call. When the day finally came, over a hundred people showed up ready to run into Long Island Sound in early March, which takes a certain kind of dedication no matter what the thermometer says.

Special Olympics New York has been running this program for years, and events like the North Hempstead plunge are central to how the organization funds year-round sports training and athletic competition for individuals with intellectual disabilities across the state. The money raised here goes directly to those programs. That’s worth keeping in mind when you look at what individual participants managed to pull in.

Erin Lipinsky of Great Neck was the event’s top individual fundraiser, raising $35,220 on her own. That figure is remarkable by any standard. Lipinsky has been involved with Special Olympics New York since 2004, and her commitment to the organization clearly runs deep. When one person accounts for more than 40 percent of an event’s total fundraising, that says something both about the individual and about the cause they’re representing.

The Manhasset High School Unified Sports Team also had a strong showing, raising over $14,000 as part of the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools program. Unified Sports pairs students with and without intellectual disabilities on the same teams, and the fact that a high school squad raised that kind of money is a credit to the students, their coaches, and the broader Manhasset community.

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena has made this event a regular part of her calendar, and this year she walked participants into the water one by one to make sure everyone who wanted to plunge could do so safely. First responders were also stationed in the water throughout the event. That kind of attention to safety matters, especially given the conditions that pushed the event back in the first place.

DeSena has been a consistent presence at community events like this since taking office, and her participation here isn’t just symbolic. Physically getting in the water alongside constituents, making sure no one gets left behind in the process, is the kind of hands-on local governance that tends to generate genuine goodwill. It also shows an understanding that these fundraising events depend on elected officials showing up and putting themselves on the line, not just issuing supportive press releases from a warm office.

The event drew sponsorship from several organizations, including North Bay, H2M Architects and Engineers, Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, and Nestlé Health Science Foundation. Corporate sponsorship at the local level keeps operational costs down and ensures more of the participant-raised dollars flow directly to Special Olympics programming rather than event overhead.

Nassau County has a long track record of community fundraising events that punch above their weight, and this plunge is a good example. The $86,000-plus raised in Port Washington on a cold Saturday in early March represents real money for an organization that depends on local generosity to keep its programs running. Special Olympics New York serves athletes across the entire state, and contributions from events on Long Island directly support that work.

The weather fought organizers this year, the original date got pushed back, and people still showed up in numbers and gave generously. That’s the kind of community response that doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built over years by people like Lipinsky, who has been doing this work since 2004, and by local institutions that take their role in the community seriously.