<human>: Provide a brief overview of the text.

[My Donation Page for the Polar Plunge](

I wanna start by saying that if you don't want to or can't donate money, that's alright by me.  I'd be more than happy to take a few warm thoughts.

**Why I'm doing it**

My brother was born with 13Q-, an extremely rare genetic disorder that affects the 13Q chromosome.  It's so rare, that although I've spent a lot of time as a kid and as a young adult volunteering at Special Olympics, I've never met or heard of anyone else having it.  It's not as noticeable as Down's, but people definitely notice something is different about Andy, though.

Sports have always been his passion.  Name a sports team, and he'll tell you the scores from the last 10 games and who and where they played.  He'll tell you all about who got drafted this year by what teams, and he loves to talk about how the Twins are doing this year.  Most people know that mentally disabled people often find something out there in the world that just wraps them up and becomes something they're an expert in, even if people don't want to give them credit for how smart they really are.

And with his love of watching sports, along comes a love of playing them.  From when he was a kid doing Challengers softball in the Twin Cities, though Adaptive sports in high school (which his team won state nearly every year), and now onto Special Olympics MN, where he may not always win first, but it's where he always has fun with friends playing basketball, softball, or bowling.

So, I decided, while I'm off at college, I would do what I could do help Special Olympics MN by jumping in Lake Superior.  I can't drive and cheer at the games for awhile, so I'm going to put on my swimsuit and jump into a frozen lake in northern MN in February.  

Because this program especially means so much to people like my brother, who don't live lives as free and independent as me.  Without Special Olympics, a big part of his life and the lives of his friends would simply not exist, and I would hate to see that happen.
<bot>: Give me your warmth when I jump into Lake Superior, and if you can spare it, a few dollars to help continue the programs would be nice, too