The community is the reason for our success.
How we started….
For the past ten years or so, Super Bowl Sunday, afternoon, a few neighbors and friends would get together to play football. And every year, Andy Huber would try to talk the guys into jumping into the river after the game. In January 2000, he succeeded, but they had to chop through the ice to get in the water. Their wives told them they were idiots. Why would anyone do such a ridiculous thing? But they were determined to do it the following year. Andy’s sister, Karen Huber, told them if they were going to make spectacles of themselves, they might as well do it for a good cause. Their wives liked that idea and suggested that they help neighborhood kids that had medical problems.
So Andy Huber, John Corcoran, John Fox and Chris Bryceland, decided to name their little group, The Stony Point Seals and do some fundraising. The group would select a child in North Rockland with high medical bills. They would get sponsors who would give them a donation to jump in the river. While their wives would collect donations and sell hot dogs and sodas on shore. This was started by a handful of guys and their families and has grown to include neighbors, relatives, organizations and businesses. The first year only a few guys made the plunge, in 2003 there were over fifty!
In January 2001, the fundraiser was done for Michael Sparta, a little boy from Stony Point who has cerebral palsy. In 2002, the Polar Plunge was done for little Emily Kreger, also a North Rockland resident who was diagnosed with brain cancer. In 2003, the Seals jumped in for three-year old Sarah Martin who had been in a terrible lawn mower accident. This year the Polar Plunge will be done for two North Rockland residents, four-year old Lauren Leeber, who contracted bacterial meningitis, and twenty-three year old Mathew Lupo, who was injured in a swimming accident and is now paralyzed.
The Stony Point Seals have a lot of support within the community. The Stony Point Police Department, Wayne Hose Company, and the Stony Point Ambulance Corp. have been there to help in any way they could. This year the Stony Point Seals are being joined by the Nam Knights of America, MC – Hudson Valley Chapter, a motorcycle club comprised mostly of veterans and law enforcement personnel dedicated to raising money for worthy causes. The Seals are very happy to be joined with an organization that has done so much for their community.
A well-deserved thank you to all those members of the very appealing “Banana Hammocks” who stood outside in Stony Point this past Thursday morning with nothing on but their “hammocks” raising money for this fund raiser!
