If you want to cross another New Year's resolution off your list, the Auburn Recreation and Wellness Center has you covered.The Polar Plunge will take place on Jan. 19 at the Auburn rec's pool facilities. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the plunge taking place at 5:45 p.m. The first 100 participants will receive a polar plunge T-shirt and all participants can have coffee or hot chocolate from Toomer's Coffee or pops from Steel City Pops.
Chad Day, assistant director of aquatics at the recreation and wellness center, said the event will be cold but exciting.
"[We've] got kind of a fire and ice type of thing going on," Day said. "We've got some really cool things going on with the popsicles and the coffee."The T-shirts were Day's idea, according to Leanne Greene, assistant director of campus rec marketing.
"He had seen these done in another way before and brought it to us," Greene said.
Greene said the event is meant to bring awareness to the hot tub being open during the winter months.
"Maybe they've not been out before [or] seen the facilities," Greene said. "They have something they can do [at the pool], not just in the summer."
The pool will open again in March, but the hot tub will be available throughout the semester.
Greene said the coolest thing about this event is the variety of people that attend. Last year's event drew a diverse crowd, according to Greene.
"It wasn't just the folks that liked outdoors, it wasn't just the folks that liked group fitness," Greene said. "It was a unique, eclectic group of students that might not have met otherwise."
Day said lifeguards will be present at the event.
"I think everybody wants to jump into freezing cold water, but they're kind of scared for safety reasons," Day said. "It's going to be a safe opportunity for them to take the plunge and do something they normally wouldn't."
For more information, see the Auburn Recreation and Wellness Center's website.
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