A Freeze For A Cause
For five years now, the Patriot Polar Plunge has sent hundreds running into the February ocean—to support local veterans.
You gotta be nuts, right? While taking a quick dip in the ocean is refreshing on a hot August day, it’s positively crazy in February, when the average water temperature off the Jersey Shore hovers around 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Crazy, that is, unless you’re motivated by a very good cause.
For hundreds who’ll gather on a Sea Girt beach this month, it’s the latter. They’re participants in the Sea Girt Patriot Polar Plunge, which is marking its fifth anniversary as it raises money to support veterans.
The annual event supports Monmouth County Habitat for Humanity’s Local Initiative for Troops (LIFT) fund. It’s not Monmouth’s only polar plunge, but it may well be its fastest growing; the event’s first year raised around $30,000, and that ballooned to close to $60,000 in 2025, with more than 500 participants. That money goes toward maintaining veterans’ homes—not only for upkeep and standard repairs, but also for adding vital accessibility features such as ramps and handrails. In 2026, it takes place Feb. 7.
The Patriot Polar Plunge story is also the story of Sea Girt resident Mike D’Altrui, who is the event’s founder and organizer in addition to the LIFT program’s ambassador. Explains Amy Williams, director of development at Monmouth Habitat for Humanity: “We had already decided to pursue an initiative to help veterans. Mike heard about it and approached us.”
D’Altrui came in with ideas. “I asked if we could create a specific separate fund for veterans, and everyone agreed,” he says. “I came up with the LIFT name and designed the logo. Veterans mean a lot to me. My father was a Marine. I wanted a way to give back to people who have given so much to our country.”
LIFT started to take on smaller projects in the community, but it was lacking consistent funding. D’Altrui had ideas for that as well. “I started thinking that it would be interesting to do a polar plunge, though I hate the cold and would normally have no interest in doing it myself,” he says.
Sea Girt Recreation and Monmouth Habitat were on board, and the first year’s event began to take shape with a date at the start of February. Sponsors were secured and participants began registering. “Then we noticed there was a group of people registering out of Burlington County,” says D’Altrui. “I thought that was curious— why are people from an hour away registering?”
He soon found out. One member of that group reached out to D’Altrui to let him know that they were planning on participating in the plunge in honor of Sgt. Juan Fajardo, a state trooper, National Guardsman and father of three who died in a motorcycle accident in 2021. Because Sea Girt is home to both the National Guard Training Center and the State Police Training Center, the family considered it their home away from home. “So we said, ‘Hey, it would be our honor to do this event in his memory,’” D’Altrui says. “They agreed.” The plunge has honored Fajardo ever since, and his family still attends yearly.
Since that first year, the event has bloomed into a celebration of servicemen and women. Both the state police and the National Guard get in the spirit, with the 63rd Army Band, color guard and police horses in attendance. LIFT also started honoring a local “veteran of the year” during the opening ceremony. Last year’s polar plunge celebrated Joseph Aboussleman, a Barnegat native who served in World War II and turned 100 this past April.
Since its inception, Monmouth Habitat has completed 29 LIFT projects. Three more are in the works currently, made possible by the funding the Patriot Polar Plunge brings in. “We are keeping veterans in their homes,” says D’Altrui. “I worked recently with this older gentleman and his wife, and he was so proud that he’d maintained his home for so long. But the roof had fallen into disrepair and was leaking. There was mold and rot, and he couldn’t deal with it by himself. He was very upset—he just kept saying, ‘This is not who I am.’ LIFT is helping fix it. Not only are we giving somebody who has given back to our country their self-respect and pride back, the couple won’t need to leave their home.”
Adds Williams: “Habitat does a few other big fundraisers—a golf outing, a pickleball tournament—but none of them bring people together like this one. We are a volunteer organization. We are all about people coming together and pooling their resources to help neighbors in need, and this event really embodies that. The fact that Mike, a volunteer himself, is at the center of it really speaks to that power.”
Another power not to be written off is the power of fun. “It’s just a blast to watch people charge down the beach and come out, screaming and frozen,” says Williams. The afterparty, held at Rod’s Tavern in Sea Girt, is equally joyful. Williams herself participated in the 2025 event, and reports it was “such a fun day,” regardless of the chill.
And what of our cold-averse organizer? “Oh, yeah, of course I participate,” says D’Altrui. “Each year but one. Believe me, every time, the water actually feels warmer than the air.”
