Memory of Big Ed keeps team coming to Town of Brookhaven Polar Plunge
Late Special Olympian Edward Cantwell's family members gather each year at the Town of Brookhaven Polar Plunge as team Big Ed's Big Hearts to raise money for Special Olympics New York and to honor his memory. Credit: Brittany Bernstein
Big Ed’s Big Hearts polar bear plunge team was formed six years ago when Halley Kretschmer wanted to fundraise for Special Olympics New York to honor her uncle Edward Cantwell, a Special Olympic swimmer.
The team started small but has since grown to include almost 40 of Kretschmer’s friends and family members from all over the East Coast, including Virginia and Connecticut. They now gather each year in memory of her uncle, who died four years ago at 58.
Kretschmer and her mother, Ellen Kretschmer, both travel from Naples, Florida, to Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai each year for the Town of Brookhaven Polar Plunge. The plunge, now in its ninth year, is a fundraiser for Special Olympics New York.
This year, they left Florida’s 88-degree warmth and sunshine on Nov. 15 for New York’s cold and snowy 30s. On Nov. 17, the day of the plunge, it was 45 degrees, but felt cooler with the wind.
“I’d say one of the colder years,” Halley said, but added that the plunge “goes by so quickly.”
“It’s actually not that bad. I guess you’re a bit proud that you did it but also you just can’t believe you’ve done it,” she said.
Cantwell, who lived in Sound Beach and loved swimming in the Long Island Sound, “would definitely plunge with us if he still could,” Halley said.
The team created its name based on Cantwell’s 40th birthday celebration, which had been themed “Big Ed’s Big Day.” Cantwell “loved a good party,” Halley said.
The first year that the family took the plunge, Cantwell was in the hospital sick. They spent all day at the hospital visiting him, taking a quick break to take the plunge. Since then, it’s become tradition for the family.
“Well we started it, we have to,” Ellen Kretschmer said of why they travel from Florida each year to honor her brother at the plunge. “You can’t quit… ‘twice a coincidence, third time a tradition’ so then you have to keep doing it.”
Now the group has its plunge down to a science, even bringing heated water and a kiddie pool with them to build a makeshift “jacuzzi” for warmth after the plunge.
Despite the size of the team, only 12 actually take the plunge. Others wait on the beach with towels and layers of clothes for those emerging from the chilly sound. Big Ed’s Big Hearts was the fourth-largest team fundraiser for 2018’s plunge with more than $8,000.
Big Ed’s Big Hearts has one rule for its team members: “You have to get your head wet,” Halley Krestchmer said.
“If they don’t, we dunk’em so you’re getting under there somehow whether you like it or not.”
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