Colony freshman a top fundraiser for 2017 Polar Plunge

WASILLA — By $100 Kayleen Plano-Murr has already exceeded her $1,000 fundraising goal for this year’s Polar Plunge, with more donations on the way, leading up to her frigid plunge into Finger Lake on Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Plunge is an annual community event organized by the Mat-Su Sertoma Club, a non-profit membership organization that supports hearing health in the Mat-Su Valley. The Plunge is designed to support local charities involved and give back to the community, granting new opportunities.

Kayleen’s plunge pledge is to provide an opportunity for Alyssa Akers to attend Gallaudet University Summer Camp (for the deaf and hard of hearing, in Washington D.C).

Plano-Murr is a freshman at Colony High School and has been an American Sign Language (ASL) student for three years. She had an early appreciation for the language. She became interested in seventh grade when she noticed some of her classmates were hearing impaired. She wanted to be able to talk to them and make them her friends. She quickly progressed and committed to the new language and her new friends.

Recently, Plano-Murr’s ASL class received a visit from Akers, asking for help with her goal to attend the Gallaudet University Summer Camp program. Akers earned a scholarship, and the camp is a chance to check out the school and meet new people who face the same challenges she does.

“This summer, when I go to Washington D.C., I’m going to be learning how to go to college, exploring potential different careers, and experiencing what exciting Washington D.C. has to offer,” Akers stated in a thank you letter to the Seroma Club for arranging her trip. “And I will be meeting people like me, who can sign.”

Akers was the winner of Sertorma’s essay contest as a part of its Summer Camp Program.

Her Team, “Untamed” will be wearing all green with green tutus. The costumes will have a memorial message for David Grunwald (the Palmer teen who was murdered in November). Grunwald’s family reached out to Kayleen and donated to Plano-Murr’s pledge.

“In memory of David, since he’s not here, he can help us,” Plano-Murr said.

With some military in her family background, Plano-Murr is also a member of her school’s JROTC, another platform she used to help her community and even unitized for making connections for pledge.

“It’s pretty fun. We do a lot of community service hours” she said. “So far I have 61 hours for the school year. It’s nice to help others.”

The JROTC students have aided in numerous places such as the Valley Community Recycling Solutions (VCRS), elementary schools, the Homeless Connect event, and the Secret Santa program.

“Giving back to your community, you get a good feeling about it.”

Once Kayleen agreed to pledge, she hit the pavement and lit up her phone. She went door-to-door with a flyer to local businesses asking for donations. She called many family and friends and with help from her mom, promoted the cause on Facebook.

According to her mother, Raylene Murr, Kayleen’s mom, came home one day from school and told her that there were a bunch of kids who didn’t have many friends and wanted to be able to talk to them. She asked for an ASL workbook for Christmas and downloaded an ASL app on her phone. She started teaching herself, and was signing before she even started her first class. They offered ASL as a second language in school and Kayleen shows no signs of slowing down as she works her way through high school and college.

“I think it’s really great that kids are helping support their class mates. They don’t know each other super well but she came home really excited to help her (Ackers) get to camp,” Raylene Murr said.

This is Kayleen’s first time plunging into the icy, Alaskan waters. At noon, it will be recorded live via “Facebook Live,” so everyone who donated can watch the “Untamed” team in action.

According to the Sertoma’s Facebook post, Kayleen is a “top online pledges plunger.”

“I’m just thankful she has such a giving heart,” her mom said.