{"id":559224,"date":"2026-02-01T18:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/559224\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T18:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:54:20","slug":"polar-plunge-winter-festival-for-make-a-wish-illinois-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/559224\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar Plunge Winter Festival for Make-A-Wish Illinois \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make-A-Wish Illinois hosted its annual Polar Plunge Winter Festival on Saturday afternoon at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa<\/a>. <\/p>\n

One hundred and eighty people from 15 groups participated in the Penguin Plunge to show support for Make-A-Wish Illinois, which is celebrating its 40th year of creating life-changing wishes for Illinois children with critical illnesses.<\/p>\n

Participants arrived two hours before the plunge to enjoy food, beverages, music and activities. <\/p>\n

\"Father<\/p>\n

Mitchell Canon hugs his daughter Kylie after the plunged together into the icy water at the Make-A-Wish Illinois Penguin Plunge on January 31, 2026 at Skydive Chicago. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n

While many jumped into the icy water, others attended to voice their support for Make-A-Wish Illinois.<\/p>\n

The groups at the event included Vactor, Team Francisco, Atom Splitters, Atomic Penguins, Bears Den, Chill Seekers, Delta Theta Tau Zeta Upsilon, Leasure Time, Parker\u2019s Penguins, Ryder Strong, Simon\u2019s Squad, Triton Services, Valentinos, Wishes and Warriors, and Wishmakers. <\/p>\n

Team Francisco, Leasure Time, Parker\u2019s Penguins, Ryder Strong and Simon\u2019s Squad are groups made up of Make-A-Wish families. <\/p>\n

When people first started jumping into the water, it was 26 degrees with a real-feel temperature of 8 degrees. <\/p>\n

Dillon Leasure has been participating in the Penguin Plunge for a decade now. Since being a Make-A-Wish child himself, Leasure has stayed active in the mission to grant wishes to more children who are experiencing what he went through as a child. <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex Karpati of the Vactor plunging team does a can opener trick jump off of the dock at the Make-A-Wish Illinois Penguin Plunge on January 31, 2026 at Skydive Chicago. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n

Now a teacher in the area, Leasure gives back by participating with his family and others in a large group, Leasure Time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the coldest it\u2019s ever been,\u201d he said. \u201cA couple of years ago, it was way colder. It was snowing and just frigid. One year, they had to reschedule it twice because the temperature was so low,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

One of the youngest plungers was Faith, a 9-year-old girl from the Atomic Penguins group, who was participating for the first time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI decided on my way here to run in,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Faith shrugged when asked if she was surprised at how cold the water was, but said, \u201cI\u2019d probably do it again.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Faith,<\/p>\n

Faith, a 9-year-old girl from the Atomic Penguins group, took part in the Penguin Plunge on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa. (Mathias Woerner)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be able to do this without our volunteers and sponsors,\u201d Make-A-Wish Illinois Senior Communications Manager Jessica Miller said. <\/p>\n

Miller hopes that the event can continue to raise awareness about Make-A-Wish Illinois and its mission. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize that wishes are being granted in their community all the time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The Penguin Plunge has been helping grant wishes for the children of Make-A-Wish Illinois since 2011. <\/p>\n

Linda Johnson started the polar plunge along with Sammy Berry. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to raise awareness for what Make-A-Wish Illinois does and we just had the idea to do something like this,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The plunge used to be held in Heritage Harbor in Ottawa before moving to Skydive Chicago in recent years. <\/p>\n

\"Plunge<\/p>\n

Plunge participants leap off of the dock and into the frigid water at the Make-A-Wish Illinois Penguin Plunge on January 31, 2026 at Skydive Chicago. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n

Make-A-Wish Illinois has already helped 19 kids this year in La Salle County <\/a>and the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents like these drive revenue, that\u2019s obviously important, but it\u2019s the community engagement that sets them apart,\u201d Make-A-Wish Illinois CEO Stephanie Springs said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to grant wishes, that\u2019s a given, but when you have the support and participation of the community, that\u2019s really special.\u201d <\/p>\n

Make-A-Wish Illinois has raised more than $95,000 from the event and they are continuing to accept donations through Feb 28. <\/p>\n

Donations continued on Saturday night at Keegan\u2019s Irish Pub, which hosted the unofficial afterparty of the Polar Plunge Winter Festival, and donated 5% of their sales to the cause.<\/p>\n

To learn about Make-A-Wish Illinois and its mission, go to wish.org\/Illinois. To get involved, go to wish.org\/Illinois\/volunteer. <\/p>\n

\"Ottawa<\/p>\n

Ottawa Fire Department rescue diver, Brian Ksiazak has icicles form in his mustache as he helps protect swimming participants at the Make-A-Wish Illinois Penguin Plunge on January 31, 2026 at Skydive Chicago. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Make-A-Wish Illinois hosted its annual Polar Plunge Winter Festival on Saturday afternoon at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa. One…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":559225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,728,161184,50,75390,8792,75391],"class_list":{"0":"post-559224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-mywebtimes","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newstribune","15":"tag-ottawa","16":"tag-shaw-local-front-headlines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115996896074489998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}