More Fun and Frolic than Frigid - Winter Event a Huge Success

2011 Polar Plunge and Tuxedos and Tiaras

By Coral Popowitz, Executive Director of Children's Grief Connection

Well, to say a good time was had by all is a bit of an understatement that even these photos can’t fully express.  Our first annual (that’s right folks we had so much fun we’re going to do it again next year) Frigid Fun & Frolic was a huge success.  But you want to hear the stories behind the story???

The morning of March 5^th started out early when eight hardy Minnesotans showed up in their winter gear, cups of coffee steaming in one hand and various ‘ice’ tools in the other as Steve revved up the 36 inch blade with a magical ice cutting chain on his saw and went to work cutting through the 32 inches on Lake Waconia outside Lola’s Lakehouse.  Several hours later, and a mountain of ‘ice cubes’ placed by forklift, water – ice cold water – was rippling as the sun began to shine and the 2011 Polar Plungers began showing up, getting their t-shirts (and courage) on.  Promptly at 11am the mighty team of 25 made their way on the ice, but photos first, oh and the plunge was halted temporarily TO SCRAPE THE ICE OFF THE JUST CUT HOLE IN THE WATER!!  Once the shards of ice were cleared, one by one, with cheers and applause the plungers made their way into the freezing water, some hesitated, some back-flipped, cannon-balled and even belly flopped.  Some wore tiaras (in honor of the day, more on that later) or shorts and t-shirts (tie-dyed of course) or footie pajamas zipped to the neck, there was even a squad of the shirtless, local guys who saw our poster the night before and showed up, made a huge donation and removed one item off their bucket list. (We love those guys) 

No matter what they wore or how they went in to the water, EVERYONE was cold, and at the same time, warmed, by the spirit of those who came out and for the reason we were all there on a cold winter morning – to help grieving children.  An incredible $16,000+ was raised, far surpassing last year’s incredible goal and enough to fund an entire Hearts of Hope camp and teen retreat!  So who’s in for next year??????? 

With just enough time to warm up and get in a quick nap the day was far from over as the “elegant” part of Frigid Fun and Frolic was about to begin.  At Hubert’s in Target Center for the Tuxedos and Tiaras elegant pub crawl, the tuxedo t-shirts were lined up next to the rows and rows of tiaras ready for the ‘frolickers’ to begin.  Once tiaras were in place, corsages pinned on, a giant balloon arch awaited  a special ‘Prom Photo’ opportunity that no one missed.  

Once the crowd had gathered the announcement and crowning of the 2011 Frigid Fun and Frolic King and Queen Tim and Jenny Hoff was met with cheers especially after his royal proclamation to eat, drink and be merry.  When the King finished his proclamation request it was time to proceed, parade and promenade down First Avenue to the next royal establishment. O’Donovan’s doors were open for our grand entrance as once again the King proclaimed the establishment royal, the libations ready and the merrymaking continued.  Each stop and proclamation brought treasures to anyone lucky enough (these were Irish pubs after all) to have their name drawn (and nearly everyone was lucky) from the King’s treasure chest.  The frolicking commenced one more time as the bling-adorned throng made their way to the last stop of the evening, Kieran’s Irish Pub.  

  

Settling in, the King again proclaimed a royal thank you to all who made the night so regal and decreed the Imperial Auction begin.  Auctioneers Sal and Steve stepped up to entertain the crowd but not before everyone was reminded once again of why the evening was so important – one phone call – during all the last minute preparing and planning – from a bereaved mom – who’s little boy needed to come to camp –his daddy had died and she needed our help.  Thanks to the efforts and participation of the day’s event this mom and her little boy would be getting the help they needed.  

 

After hearing and being reminded of what the evening was all about the auction was amazing, with trips, sports tickets, hotel stays and even a personal song written (our King and Queen won this item and requested the songwriter attend and write the song about Hearts of Hope!).  Kieran’s managers donated a one-of-a-kind Guinness mountain bike AND an evening out with a charming Irishmen brought in four times the original ‘value’ !  The evening, the day, turned out to be more fun and frolic than frigid and helped raise over $22,000 to keep Hearts of Hope Camp and Teen Retreat going strong and provided free for all Minnesota’s grieving children.  You won’t want to miss out next year. 

Life is Precious, Even After Death

As appeared in the January issue of the MFDA Bulletin.

By Jerry J. Brown, Friend of the Funeral Service community and
a member of the Children's Grief Connection Board of Directors. 

In death, the life of one-beloved will never really leave the hearts and minds of those who forever reflect, remember, commune and revisit with tenderness, smiles and tears as the soft and filtered visions ebb and flow.

The sanctity of a life lived in quintessential kindness, elegance and love must be honored and revered in the mode and manner of the life incarnate.

The rites, rituals, traditions and ceremonies embodied in THE FUNERAL have prevailed since the dawn of humankind. Although many forms of funeralization have metamorphosed, returned and morphed again with the relentless “March of the Millennia,” one phenomenon endures and transcends the shock, paralysis and sadness evoked by the death of one beloved. . . simply, to finally say “goodbye” with the love, gratitude and respect commensurate with the life now stilled forever.

Ergo, in the context of a changing profile vis-à-vis, the funeral experience, we now must deal with the emergence of “Home/Do It Yourself Funerals.” These are people who decry the need for licensed, certified college graduates who comprise the legions of Funeral Professionals and maintain that “THEY” – the uninformed and unprepared can “Go Green!” and, with slabs of dry ice, candelabras, boom-box background funeral tunes and post-visitation coffee and cookies, can orchestrate, choreograph and conduct home funerals – sans licensed professionals – with all of the panache, pomp and circumstance of a real funeral (health hazards notwithstanding) and professional licenses be damned.

Personally, I would like to ask these same “green wannabe undertakers” a question or two:

- Would you consider hopping into an airplane if the pilot (driver) had never

flown before and had no FAA license?

- Would you go to a cardiologist who was still “just practicing” and had never been to med school and thought the Hippocrates Oath was a swear word?

- Would you enroll in a series of college courses where the professors had never finished the 6th grade?

Would you go to a plastic surgeon that had never advanced beyond “playdough”?

Would you sign up for golf lessons if the instructor was a SUMU wrestler?

Doubtful!

NOTE: Stay with what you know and get the licensed funeral professional to care for your beloved.

2011 Polar Plunge Videos

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

After a challenging year, Hearts of Hope Camp and Teen Retreat finally happened this past weekend.  It’s difficult to put into words what an amazing experience everyone had, you have to BE there to fully know the joy, the richness, the transformations in healing that take place.  First time volunteer Ann Tunheim expresses it beautifully - 

Albert Einstein once said, “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” I’ve heard that quote a few times, most recently from my mom who has it hanging in her office at work.

This Saturday that quote came flowing through my mind, and God revealed to me the truth in that statement. I spent this past weekend at Camp Courage near Clearwater, MN. Nick has been bugging me for years to join him in his mission with Children’s Grief Connection, formerly Camp Amanda. I finally gave in, and after two cancellations this year, I made it to an actual camp this weekend. I have to admit, I was incredibly nervous on what I would say to these kindergarten and first grade students assigned to me as their camp counselor. I had no clue how to counsel grieving children.

Then my first camper, Natalie, arrived. She held my hand the moment her dad left and didn’t stop holding my hand until he came back to get her the following day. To recap the weekend, I went swimming fully clothed (you would think my co-director husband would have informed me that this camp had a pool or just maybe I should have read the packing list), went way out of my comfort zone to talk to family members and children who had loved ones die, trampled through wood-tick, raccoon infested woods (without screaming), managed to get five young girls to sleep, managed to convince those five young girls that my sound machine sounds GREAT, and came to realize just how much I love Gods children.

I had an Aha! moment when I was in the cabin with our group and little Natalie was passing me notes telling me that she wanted to cry, that she missed her mom, and that she loved me. I realized just why God tells us the greatest command is to love him with all of our heart and next in line is to love our neighbor as ourselves. I told God on Saturday that it is in fully serving others with no care about myself that I truly feel alive. I’m not going to lie, that doesn’t happen often. But when it does, I feel freedom like I’ve never felt it before. I feel like I have found my purpose. I encourage all of you reading this blog to go do something this week that is completely selfless. Ask God for direction on what he wants you to do, and listen. You will be blessed!

Grace Under Fire

Apparently Ernest Hemingway coined the phrase “grace under fire” when he was asked to define ‘guts’ or ‘courage’ by the infamous Dorothy Parker in an interview back in 1929.  The phrase accurately describes the weekend at our January session of Hearts of Hope camp and teen retreat.

I am always amazed yet never surprised at the level of commitment and support our volunteers give throughout the year but never more than at an actual camp session.  January 2010 will go down in our history as a shining example of “grace under fire.”

The weather forecast on the Thursday prior predicted temperatures above freezing and possible rain throughout the weekend; late Sunday night would bring a drop in temperature and turn to snow.  With our October camp being canceled due to an outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus, our volunteers from FDLIC in Abilene, Texas flying in and our highly anticipated Polar Plunge fundraiser scheduled for Sunday afternoon – and yes a little bit of ‘we’re Minnesotans we’re used to this stuff’ I made the decision to go ahead with camp. 

It was a gloomy but balmy Friday afternoon drive up to Little Falls for our volunteers. Early in the evening it began to rain, causing volunteers to scurry across the wet parking lot to the conference center for our volunteer training. After a fun, informational evening, anxious for our campers to arrive we went out to our cabins to find …ice – everywhere - covering everything. The temperature had dropped in a few short hours and all the rain turned solid on the road, the walk way, even on the snowdrifts.  Volunteers precariously made their way across the parking lot to sleep through a wind-howling night.

By Saturday morning as Mike and Judy Dahl tried to make their way across the parking lot to ready the gym for our opening circle they were turned back – they could not walk upright across the parking lot!

Here’s where the “grace under fire” comes in – as the Lake Beauty facility staff announced the plow trucks were being pulled off the county roads and this was the beginning of three days of winter storm warnings and possible blizzard conditions the volunteer staff were gathered together to determine the cancellation of this camp session for the safety and well-being of our camper families and our staff.  A very disappointing but responsible decision now required communication; there were no doubt several families making their way to camp despite the road conditions– most returning from the canceled October session. Volunteers divided up the camper applications and immediately became a ‘call center’ relaying information to and from families. Most families were relieved to hear they could get off the roads, some were within miles of camp; they were invited to continue to the camp facility, join us for lunch and meet the staff.  Six families accepted the invitation; ten children got a ‘taste’ of what the April camp session would be like and are anxious to return.  Through it all, our volunteers jumped in, packing things up to get our equipment ready to head out before roads got even worse while simultaneously putting things together to make the experience for just those ten campers one they would remember – all the while still deeply disappointed that the weekend was over before it started.  A second camp canceled, bad road conditions (or runways) to consider and still they persevered, remaining supportive and upbeat.

And it doesn’t end there…

•    Despite the snow blowing everywhere, the long treacherous road home ALL our volunteers stayed after families left and camp was packed up to watch and cheer on the handful of Polar Plungers =  “Grace under fire.” 

•    You’ve lived your entire life in the warmth of the southern Texas sun, you’ve never been anywhere under 45 degrees and you are in northern Minnesota in January in swim trunks plunging into ice cold water = “Grace under fire.” 

•    You’ve never been to a camp but you’ve made the t-shirts, seen the website and your good friend has just died leaving a young son behind, you can’t get to the Polar Plunge but the $1500 in pledges you’ve gathered the past weeks makes you go to the nearest open water and plunge in anyway = “Grace under fire.”

•    Nineteen men and women, 20 year olds and 58 year olds stepped up to the dark hole in the frozen lake and jumped in, on a dare, fueled by pledged donations totaling near $10,000, with the cheers and shouts of their fellow volunteers while a blizzard develops around them = you may say “crazy” -  I say: “Grace Under Fire.”

 

Written by Coral Popowitz, Camp Director.

Our brave plungers who raised over $10,000!

Coral Popowitz (Camp Director) & Colby Whitmore

Katie Petschke




Sue Peterson

Mike Davies

Pat Baxter & Colby Whitmore (again)

Rex Johnson, Steve Popowitz, Nick Tunheim, Steve Popowitz (again), Colby Whitmore (again), Kathy Jacobs, Kevin Combest, Mike Davies, Rex Johnson (again), Roxanne Storms & Brian Alnes (Lake Beauty Bible Camp ED)

Colby Whitmore (again) & Steve Popowitz (again)

Jason Bexell with Chickenmoose prints all of our camp shirts. He planned on
attending our first annual Polar Plunge, however, with the weather he
didn't make the trip. Raising over $1400, Jason was determined to make
good on his word!!

January Camp...Cancelled

Although it was a difficult decision, it became very apparent that in-order to ensure the safety of our campers, camper’s families and volunteers we needed to cancel Hearts of Hope Camp and Teen Retreat. 

The weather was treacherous from the 1/2 inch of rain that fell Friday evening to Saturday morning and more still coming making traveling less than desirable.  Two of Lake Beauty’s staff, who drive to the facility multiple times a week, ended up in the ditch on their way into work this morning.  The forecast was telling us that we could expect another 2-5 inches of snow on top of the 1/2 inch of rain we had already received.  Along with freezing temperatures, it was a recipe for disaster having families and volunteers on the road on Sunday.

We are so thankful for our dedicated volunteers who were there and ready to serve in any way possible and for supporting the difficult decision of canceling camp.  Our hearts are heavy for the children who did not get to experience camp, but we are happy they are home safe and sound.  All campers will be invited to our April camp which will be held on April 17-18th near Maple Lake.

The good news is, we still did the first annual Polar Plunge event and raised well over $7500 to-date, with expectations of reaching $10,000 when all the donations are received.  Each and every FDLIC Texan (with the exception of the two pilots who had to leave for the airport to prepare for their flight back), took the plunge, some of them more than once, it was quite an event!  Photos coming soon!!