This striking picture is from one of the Polar Plunges I took while hosting the event. I’m seeing that we do have quite the mix of organized events like this vs. un-organized and dangerous online challenges…do you know the difference? First up..we are involved with several events each year that appear…um…crazy…outside the norm..something where people say “who would do that???” And then you see hundreds do that event for a great cause. Prime example would be the Polar Plunge. If you think about it..it seems nuts that people would jump into a hole cut into a lake frozen over. But if you do it for charity..the Special Olympics in this case..and you take all the safety precautions like having the Marathon County Dive Team actually in the hole all day to help jumpers get out of the water..then it’s fun..and great event AND SAFE!!!
The opposite of that is online challenges…THESE are dangerous and could hurt people. There’s one that just got started. It’s called the “Cha Cha Slide” challenge..where drivers play the song “Cha Cha Slide” while they are driving..and they actually slide to the left when the song says to do that..and slide to the right when the song says to do that. SUPER, EXTREMELY, dangerous and weird that I have to say this but….DON’T DO THIS!! A listener texted us and said they were disappointed we were “planting bad ideas in her children’s head.” I completely disagree on shooting the messenger for pointing out stupid when stupid happens. We didn’t create these online challenges and talking about them on air is to make you aware they are happening. If kids go out and do these challenges..You can not blame us..the activity is already happening and needs to stop.
