On March 6, 21 students and 3 educators jumped into Eagle Creek to raise funds for the Special Olympics athletes. Since each plunger was required to raise a minimum of $125, Cathedral raised over $3,000 for Champions Together athletes.
For over 50 years, Special Olympics Indiana has been serving athletes with intellectual disabilities. Members of the Cathedral community have been active participants in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge in recent years, making it an annual tradition for students involved in the school’s Champions Together program.
Br. Matt Rehagen, a math and religious educator as well as Religious Brother, is an active member of the Special Olympics program through Cathedral High School. Rehagen said, “I grew up around Special Olympics, and so this has been a really great way, at Cathedral, to kind of give back and stay involved with special index.”
Rehagen’s involvement with the Special Olympics had been familiar to him even before coming across its path through Cathedral. “It was a very family oriented environment, and I always just grew up around Special Olympics.” For some Cathedral members like Rehagen, the Special Olympics has been a part of their lives for the entirety of their lives, but for others, it has become a new aspect of their lives. The Cathedral community involved with the Special Olympics in the 2025-2026 school year has doubled in participants.
Lola Scarsi ’26 is a new member of Cathedral’s program with the Special Olympics. Scarsi said, “What motivated me originally to join the club was just the atmosphere.” In the Special Olympics program through Cathedral, the community connects everybody together for the purpose of advocation and support of individual with intellectual disabilities.
Rehagen feels likewise, as he said, “you can just feel how everybody is there to support one another.”
On the day of the Polar Plunge, over 600 students from Indiana jumped into Eagle Creek. Seeing and participating in this, Scarsi said, “Seeing how many people were participating and also just seeing how excited everyone was to run into the cold water even though it wasn’t pleasant just to do it for a greater cause really stood out and brought it all to life.”
The Polar Plunge serves as a great way for students and educators to become active in service, a kind of service that can be fulfilling and for the support of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Rehagen said, “It’s a really great opportunity to give back to the community, to grow closer to those that you serve with and to then those as well as we serve. When you are engaged in community service, your community gets expanded, and you realize that there is no longer an “us vs. them” mentality, but it’s we’re all in this together, that we belong to one another, and we’re here to support one another. “
