January 2008

Gaining Momentum
The Lakeview Polar Bear Club's 7th Annual:  Celebration of Shrinkage was an unbelievable success!!  This was by far our best event yet and I am proud of every single person who joined us down at the beach.  We had a record number of swimmers jump in the lake with us and many adoring fans wishing they could be us.  On top of that, we raised $14,175 - a new LPBC record!! This year was a fabulous mix of friends, family, and a huge number of new members.  I hope you all had as much fun as I did and hopefully "polar bearing" is now in your blood.  We'd love to see you all back here again next year and let's all try to bring a friend.  Let's continue to make this the best polar bear club in Chicago.

The Lakeview Polar Bear Club would also like to congratulate our champions:  Brian Endres and Mike Monaghan.  They each stayed in the water for 5 minutes and 8 seconds.

THANK YOUs:
The LPBC would like to thank everyone who has supported us over the past 7 years and this includes every person who has made the trip to Chicago, jumped in the lake, sat on the ice, been sprayed down with a hose, donated to the families, joined as at the after party, and all of our sponsors who have donated raffle prizes to help our event reach new heights every year.

The LPBC would also like to give a big shout out to our Title Partner, the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.  We couldn't have pulled this off without them and their support helped make this the biggest and best plunge yet.  Plus, the heated tent, the hot chocolate, and the masseuse they provided were all life savers.  I would also like to thank Ameriprise Financial and Yelp.com for their support.  With their help we havereached a larger audience than I thought possible and we continue to grow this event so that in the future we can help more families like the Rowell's.

I would also like to thank my family: my brother Kevin, my parents Dale and Rose, and all my friends, cousins, aunts & uncles who have made the trip to Chicago to support the insanity.  Last but definitely not least, I would like to thank my beautiful girlfriend, Patricia MacHannaford.   Without your support and understanding we couldn't pull this off.