Leap into the Lake for charity

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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:37AM

The temperature of Lake Michigan’s offshore water is expected to be about freezing Saturday at 10 a.m., and the Glencoe Park District has invited you to get in it.

The second of the district’s centennial observations is dubbed Leap in the Lake!, in which all those who dare may venture into the chill water lapping along Glencoe Beach.

It’s said to be Glencoe’s first so-called polar plunge, in which folks dive into the drink at on-the-rocks temperatures, or less.

“Some people run in, and other people suffer, creeping in inch-by-inch,” district Executive Director Don Van Arsdale said. “I think I’m going to be one of the inch-by-inch people.”

He said that about a dozen have signed up, including at least one woman, a district staffer. One person plans on jumping in costume.

Van Arsdale didn’t know what the costume was, but in the interest of self-preservation, it should be a wet-suit.

On hand will be two heated changing tents. Also: an ambulance, paramedics, and Glencoe Public Safety Department’s dive team.

That’s a good idea, said Glenview cardiologist Micah J. Eimer, MD.

“Nobody knows the data on how many people die on polar plunges,” said Eimer, of Cardiovascular Associates of Glenbrook and Evanston. “We don’t keep statistics on things like that.

“But exposure to cold definitely strains the heart, raises the blood pressure, increases the heart rate.”

He said that those who try it should consider doing it Van Arsdale’s creepy way, acclimatizing one’s body to the cold instead of delivering a shock to the system all at once.

“Would you jump onto a treadmill at 15 miles per hour?”

And dunking the head too quickly can incite the “diver’s reflex,” in which the pulse rate actually goes down, to conserve oxygen, he said. But it might conserve too much, he noted ominously.

Van Arsdale said that the dunk-or-not question should be answered by “everyone’s own level of comfort. There’s no requirement that you submerge.”

The leap, or wade, could be considered a form of exercise, Eimer said, but there are a lot of other exercises that make more sense.

“(Even) If you’re fit, I don’t think anyone could tell you it’s a good thing to do,” he said. “It’s one of those things: ‘Why?’”

Well, charity is one reason, though not the best reason. The event benefits the district’s scholarship program, the Community Access for Recreation for Everyone (CARE). The fee is $20 for those under 18, and $25 for those over. Participants can collect and donate pledges, if they want to add begging to their pain.

They can sign up on-line, at the Takiff Center at 999 Green Bay Road, or at the beach.

There’s a certain macho cachet involved in this that can’t be escaped: “It’s one of those things that you have to have a lot of courage to do,” Van Arsdale said.

The district website’s come-on may say it all: “So man up and support a great cause!”

Just make sure you’re not man down.