Special Olympics

Business award winner Michael A. Mobley, executive director for j-ref, a small business financier, has won the 2010 Individual Achievement Award from the Committee for Business and Economic Diversity, Howard County Economic Development Authority. Mobley, who was honored at an awards breakfast held at the Sheraton in Columbia on April 20, won the award as a minority for his work at j-ref. Volunteers needed Special Olympics needs volunteers for its track-and-field meet and bocce competition being held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia.

Disabled athletes in Anne Arundel County will be playing baseball, lacrosse and soccer on a brand-new rubberized, all-purpose field by the summer as part of a nearly $1 million overhaul at Lake Waterford Park in Pasadena. The renovation project includes creation of an adaptive recreation field, a covered pavilion serving as an outdoor classroom and dugout, and installation of pathways and parking in adherence with the Americans with Disabilities Act. County Executive John R. Leopold and Councilman Daryl D. Jones, a Democrat who first pushed for the project, will be among the attendees at Wednesday's groundbreaking.

Howard County Special Olympics will award two $1,500 scholarships to students who have committed to the program as volunteers and advocates for the athletes. The Jackie Burk Memorial Award for Outstanding Student Volunteer for Special Olympics Howard County was created in 2004 by Jack and Linda Burk in memory of their daughter. Interested students must complete an application, provide a recommendation from a Special Olympics coach, management team member or volunteer coordinator, and write a 500-word essay about their experiences as a volunteer.

Thousands of people braved frigid temperatures and wind-driven snow to jump into the Chesapeake Bay during the 14th annual Polar Bear Plunge - but the second of Saturday's scheduled dips in the water was canceled on doctors' orders. Organizers for the event, a fundraiser for the Maryland Special Olympics, estimated that as many as 15,000 people took quick splashes in the water, which was about 36 degrees, during the first plunge at 1 p.m. Saturday. Air temperature hovered around 23 degrees.

Thousands of people braved frigid temperatures and wind-driven snow to jump into the Chesapeake Bay during the 14th annual Polar Bear Plunge - but the second of Saturday's scheduled dips in the water was canceled on doctors' orders. Organizers for the event, a fundraiser for the Maryland Special Olympics, estimated that as many as 15,000 people took quick splashes in the water, which was about 36 degrees, during the first plunge at 1 p.m. Saturday. Air temperature hovered around 23 degrees.

Actors Rob Corddry ("The Daily Show"), Craig Robinson ("The Office") and Clark Duke ("Greek") will be at Plungapalooza Saturday. But they're no fools. While thousands of others will be jumping into a frigid Chesapeake Bay, the three stars of the movie "Hot Tub Time Machine," opening nationwide March 19, will be sitting in their own hot tub. They'll also be handing over a $10,000 check to Special Olympics. Corddry, on the phone from Los Angeles, wanted to set the record straight about this notion that he'd be making like a polar bear Saturday.

A whole lot of shivering will be going on at Sandy Point State Park on Saturday, as thousands of could-be hypothermia cases jump into the frigid waters of the Chesapeake Bay for the 14th annual Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. "Yes, it is a very strange phenomenon," acknowledges Tom Schniedwind, an executive vice president of Maryland Special Olympics and one of those who started the annual ice-encrusted fundraiser. "But it's one of those bucket-list things, where people just want to be able to say, 'Wow, I can do that.