Folks to take the plunge

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Josh Anderson already knows how he’ll enter East Battle Lake when he takes part in the 5th Annual Polar Plunge Saturday at Lutheran Island Camp outside Henning.

“When you have twins you do everything twice,” said the father of identical 7-year-olds. “You definitely can’t do it slowly — it’s called a plunge for a reason. I do a cannonball twice.”

Anderson is no stranger to chilly Minnesota lakes — he’s plunged for Relay for Life and other causes in winters past. But when Anderson jumps on Saturday, he’ll be joined by nearly a dozen family and friends in an effort to raise money for twins Noah and Jaron, diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes two years ago.

It all started several days before Halloween 2006, Anderson said, when the twins were 5. Anderson and his wife, Adriane, initially attributed Noah’s bedwetting to kindergarten stress, but later noticed he was also drinking a lot of water.

“He was drinking a lot of liquids and one day when we kept track of the amount he drank it was two gallons,” Anderson said.

The couple, who live outside Clitherall, brought Noah to the hospital, where he stayed for a few days and was diagnosed with diabetes. On Halloween, after an evening of trick-or-treating without candy, the boys were at home when Jaron couldn’t find the bathroom in his own house, Anderson said. Jaron’s parents checked his blood sugar and brought him to the hospital, where he received the same diagnosis as his brother.

Since then, life has changed for the twins, their parents and their 9-year-old brother, Zack. At only 7 years old, Noah and Jaron count their own carbs, monitor the foods they eat and endure a handful of shots and blood tests daily.

“They do very well,” Anderson said. “They know when they’re high and when they’re low. You need to find that happy medium and sometimes it’s kind of a gambling game.”

When the Andersons attend the Polar Plunge Saturday, they’ll be selling event T-shirts to help fund two $7,500 portable insulin pumps, devices that will eliminate many of the pinpricks Noah and Jaron experience daily.

“It delivers the insulin more normally, like a pancreas would,” Anderson said of the pump. “It’s the closest thing they’ve designed so far to a mechanical pancreas.”

Anderson said each pump is only about the size of a cell phone and clips on to a person’s pants pocket. Similar to an IV, a tube runs from the machine to the side of the stomach, attaching with a patch. The pumps will deliver insulin throughout the day, leaving the twins with fewer shots and finger pokes at home.

The Andersons have been selling the T-shirts — designed by Adriane, a secretary at Lutheran Island Camp — to family, friends and co-workers for about a month. They’ve received donations from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ottertail and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Henning, as well as a promise of matching funds from the East Otter Tail chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Barrel O’ Fun in Perham has donated 200 bags of potato chips for the Polar Plunge and Viking Coca-Cola in Fergus Falls has donated 100 cans of pop. Lund Boats, Josh Anderson’s employer, has donated 25 baseball hats. The Ottertail Lions will also host a meat raffle on the Andersons’ behalf April 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Otter.

Last year’s Polar Plunge included about 80 plungers and 200 spectators, Anderson estimated.

This year’s plunge, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, is open to anyone, though organizers ask participants to register by calling Lutheran Island Camp at 218-583-2905.