Fordham Students Jump in Near-Freezing Ocean for Good

By The Fordham Ram on February 12, 2014 • ( 0 )

By ADRIANA KRASNIANSKY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fordham students participate in a Polar Plunge in the waters of Long Beach, Long Island, on a cold February morning.
(EVAN GRASPI/THE RAM)

In February 1998, two men decided to jump into the Atlantic Ocean. Hours before Super Bowl XXXII, Kevin McCarthy and Pete Meyers began their tailgate by running off the shore of Long Beach into nearly freezing water. Who knew that 16 years later, on February 2, 2014, over 50 Fordham Rams would follow in their footsteps.

The Long Beach Polar Plunge – an offshoot of McCarthy and Meyers’ original 1998 stunt – began in 1999, after news of the icy dip had spread across the Long Beach community.

As friends offered to join McCarthy and Meyers in their winter swim, the two decided to develop the tradition into an annual fundraiser. The Polar Plunge now helps Make-A-Wish Metro New York to realize the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Evan Grassi, FCRH ‘15, who is from Franklin Square, N.Y., first took part in the Polar Plunge in 2007. He was introduced to the event by his uncle, who took Grassi and his cousins out to the Long Beach event on a whim. The following Christmas, Grassi’s uncle bought him a sweatshirt with the following year’s Polar Plunge logo on the front.

“[It’s now a] family tradition, but also kind of a community tradition for Long Beach and a lot of Long Island in general,” Grassi said. “[I’ve now participated] for seven years and only missed one due to being sick.”

In his freshman year at Fordham, Grassi invited 12 close friends to participate in the tradition with him. Grassi drove them down to Long Beach in his own car, and treated them to pizza at his house afterward. The following year, the 12 Fordham participants grew to 16. In 2014, Fordham’s Polar Plunge team boasted over 50 students and alumni raised $5,055 for Make-A-Wish Metro New York.

Grassi’s assembled Fordham team was one of the 10 largest at this year’s Polar Plunge, which hosted approximately 20,000 attendees, included 100 registered teams and collected an estimated $600,000 in donations (exact figures have not yet been released).

Grassi was able to leverage his position as an O’Hare resident assistant to recruit new Polar Plunge participants from the Fordham community. However, other participants, such as Anthony Palombi, FCRH ‘15, were motivated simply by Evan’s dedication to support Make-A-Wish and the desire to continue his community tradition.

“Evan’s unwavering enthusiasm was motivation enough for me to get involved,” said Palombi, who has known Grassi since their sophomore year and has participated in the Polar Plunge twice. “His ability to coordinate and manage the trip was impressive, which is no surprise if you’ve spent time with Evan.”

Grassi expects to continue fundraising for Make-A-Wish Metro New York by assembling another Fordham team for his senior year 2015 Polar Plunge.

Thanks to Grassi’s efforts, the Fordham community has been able to apply its mission of “men and women for others” to February’s near-freezing Atlantic waves.

“The whole experience is really invigorating,” Grassi said. Fordham students were able to jump in with warm hearts, startled shouts and determination.