The Purple Plunge is an event dedicated to helping cancer survivors with their financial burdens, according to the official website. Families from every part of the area and several teams and groups plunged into the Lake to raise money for the cause.

“Within the township senior center, we have had many [cases of cancer] so it really has impacted me directly, so we’re jumpin’ in because our community and the population has been so impacted by cancer,” Kara Baltes, an Ela Township community member, said.

Baltes also said that she was going because the purple Plunge was such a great charity and it really made a difference.

“They raise funds that help people locally that cover costs for things that are not normally covered by insurance, like rides, or babysitting, or stuff like that. It’s an awesome cause,” Baltes said.

 The Purple Plunge ended up achieving the goal, reaching $70,000. Iveta Totoryte, the National Honor Society chair for the event, said she was quite proud of how much money the event earned and that the event really was the best way to raise funds.

“I think this is the best way to raise money because not only does it prove to be effective but also because survivors and supporters of survivors are able to relate to one another and at the same time have fun. I think this provided good results because everyone felt united as one instead of feeling alone which ended up creating an atmosphere of friendly bonding rather than just money donation,” Totoryte said.

The LZHS community fed into that support, with both the football team and the girls track team joining the rest of the community in the plunge. One member of the track team, Sophia Szady, junior, said that it was wonderful how the teams got involved with the event and got behind such an important cause.

“There’s a family environment here, where everyone is coming together to help fight cancer, it really is a team building experience and it helps strengthen the community,” Szady said, “We just look around and inspire each other, we felt exhilarated, thrilled, and just satisfied by the time we got out of the water. That’s how I would describe the atmosphere here, and I hope that our team’s presence really helped that.”