{"id":230479,"date":"2026-03-21T21:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T21:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:06:11","slug":"oakland-sees-33rd-aycc-polar-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230479\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland sees 33rd AYCC Polar Plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">OAKLAND, Maine (WABI) &#8211; While some sported snow gear on Saturday, others opted for a swimsuit to take part in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clubaycc.org\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clubaycc.org\/\">Alfond Youth and Community Center\u2019s (AYCC)<\/a> annual Polar Plunge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Those who faced the frigid waters in Oakland joined a community fundraising tradition now in its 33rd year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe are the only Boys and Girls Club and YMCA and community center in the whole nation. We\u2019re the only combined organization,\u201d explains AYCC Senior Director of Philanthropy and Government Relations Katherine Harvey. \u201c[The polar plunge is] really focused on raising money to help feed kids, the kids in our after-school program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">AYCC provides after-school programs for children in Winslow, Benton, Oakland and Waterville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To show their support, employees of the Waterville after-school program to took the plunge. The team raised over $1,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cGiving kids a safe place to be after school, or whether they\u2019re in school or not, is I think, a really good way to invest in the future, as well as just to be at a job that is really fun!\u201d Anna Good, who was part of the team Saturday and works in HR for AYCC, comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Alongside AYCC employees, community members also braved the cold waters of Messalonskee Lake to support the community center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">One being Anthony Tuell, a decades-long participant who has held the title for most money donated by an individual for three years running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He says in total, he has been able to contribute $30,000 to $50,0000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to have the community come together,\u201d Tuell recounts. \u201cLast week on the bar, I bartend at Silver Street Tavern, I stood up and said, \u2018Everybody, all my tips today go to this pledge.\u2019 They donated $1,250 in one day. So it\u2019s just, it\u2019s a total community effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Not only did Tuell bring in over $6,000 in donations this year, he has recruited friends and co-workers to participate as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This includes Forest Gregory, who has been taking the plunge for the last six years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For him, the cold cannonballs are minor compared to the need AYCC aims to address.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI jump in the water, I\u2019m cold for 30 seconds. That\u2019s uncomfortable. These kids without food, they\u2019re living day-to-day in a state that is far more uncomfortable than that,\u201d Gregory explains. \u201cSo, Tony does a great job with the fundraising. I come out each year and put my body on the line, and that\u2019s what I consider to be my small contribution to what is a far greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Harvey says while AYCC is still accepting donations, over $20,000 has been raised so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt just&#8230; moves my heart. It does because these people, they love this community. And so they\u2019re so willing to step up and to give,\u201d Harvey says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To contribute and learn more, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clubaycc.org\/braving-the-ice-for-meals-polar-plunge-2026\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clubaycc.org\/braving-the-ice-for-meals-polar-plunge-2026\/\">visit AYCC\u2019s Braving Ice for Meals webpage.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WABI. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Maine (WABI) &#8211; While some sported snow gear on Saturday, others opted for a swimsuit to take&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,91313],"class_list":["post-230479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-poll-question-and-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}