A mild temperature with a slight gust of wind brought out 200 charitable swimmers on New Year’s Day without the fear of the Polar Express. This annual charitable event for 2019 was designated to the Kelly J. Martin Memorial Fund.
Each year the Sonia-Capano committee selects a cause to contribute the proceeds. As George Sonia expressed, “We have been doing this event for many years; the committee designates a different charitable donation each year. Some of our recent donations have helped pay for a Splash Pad for the Special Needs camp in Lynn Woods, an Adapted Needs Golf Cart at Gannon Golf Course, Homes for the Troops, and the Michele Durgin Scholarship Fund. This year we wanted to remember Kelly Martin who worked at Bridgewell for 34 years helping so many people with disabilities. Kelly graduated from Lynn Classical in 1983 and the proceeds will go to the Kelly J. Martin Scholarship Fund to students with autism.
Sean Martin, Kelly’s husband, said, “It was awesome to see a couple hundred people come out and show respect to my wife’s legacy. Throughout her career, Kelly helped so many people with special needs, especially with autism. This benefit was established to assist individuals with autism. My wife would be so proud and impressed with this cause. It was well worth every minute to have this memorial Polar Plunge for her. It was great to see so much support. We thank George and Mario for putting this benefit together annually to benefit families like ours or other charities in the City of Lynn.