Plunge (or just laugh at your friends) for a cause

Plunging into a frigid Lake Martin in January makes boating here safer year round, according to Jodie McGirt, Lake Martin Resource Association president and enthusiastic plunger for two previous years. Like many of the annual Lake Martin Young Professionals Polar Plunge swimmers, McGirt joins the throng of costumed participants to raise funds for LMRA’s Light the Lake project, which purchases, installs and maintains 460 Lake Martin buoys, just less than half of which are lighted.

“Working with Lake Martin Young Professionals has been a great partnership for safety on the lake,” McGirt said. “The annual Polar Plunge donation gives us a great boost in making the lake a safer place, which is one of our primary initiatives. The light is about half the cost of a buoy, and we want to make an effort to light as many of the buoys as we can. We appreciate the support LMYP has given us toward that goal every year.”