Dean Gladigau will be getting dunked into ice-cold water this weekend in memory of his wife, Karen, who died from motor neurone disease last year. His friend, workmate and Mooroopna Junior Football Club team manager Michelle Marsters hopes to be the one to dunk him.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Dean Gladigau is getting dunked.
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He’s no stranger to icy water in winter with regular cold plunges in his pool after gym sessions, but come Sunday, when the mercury isn’t tipped to rise above 13ºC and there’ll be no vigorous exercising to warm him up, it will be a little less pleasant of an experience.
However, Dean is comfortable being uncomfortable with the cause as close as it possibly could be to his heart.
In February last year, he lost his wife and the mother of their two sons, Karen Gladigau, to motor neurone disease after she’d been diagnosed with the insidious terminal condition less than 12 months earlier when she was just 48.
On Sunday, the second annual Big Dunk will take place at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve, where Dean and 19 other local personalities, aka ‘dunkees’, will have the seats knocked out from under them for an abrupt descent into a pool of iced water.
It’s a fundraiser that was instigated last year by Dean and Karen’s friend and one of Mooroopna Junior Football Club’s team managers, Michelle Marsters, modelled on the concept of the AFL’s Big Freeze event.
Pulled together in just three weeks by the Mooroopna Junior Football Club and Karen’s former workplace, the Shepparton Women’s Health Centre, the inaugural Big Dunk saw 12 dunkees submerged and raised $7500 to help fight MND.
This year, Michelle hopes the event can raise $12,000 in memory of Karen.
Along with Dean, there will be captains, coaches and presidents of the Mooroopna Junior Football Club facing Sunday’s freezing ‘fun’, as well as Shepparton Women’s Health Centre physiotherapist Fiona Wieland and a couple of crowd-pulling pollies.
For just $1 a ticket (or 12 for $10), you can put your name in the draw for a chance to dunk the prospect of your choice, with three shots at the target via handballing a football.
While there’s quite a tempting selection of candidates to catapult into the icy pit, including City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali and Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell, Michelle is hoping her name is drawn out of Dean’s jar to be the one to claim dunking honours of her friend and long-time workmate.
“I’d also like to dunk Dale Osborne (a club coach), especially because he doesn’t really want to participate, he’s been ‘voluntold’ he’s doing it,” Michelle laughed.
Local businesses have sponsored the junior football players to wear MND socks during their game to raise awareness about the disease.
Many others are also on board and have donated dunk tank hire, ice supply, ticket printing and prizes for raffles.
Volunteers from the footy club and the women’s health clinic will run the event, selling tickets and MND merchandise, including beanies.
MND beanies will be available for purchase at the event.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Michelle said the event served as more than just a fundraiser for MND.
“What I love is the community spirit it brings and the amount of people who get involved,” she said.
“It’s about remembering Karen, but also bringing something back to the community.”
Dean and some other dunkees are donning costumes for their dunks, taking a leaf out of last year’s Incredibles superhero suit-wearing Cr Sali.
He is staying tight-lipped about what that costume will be, though.
To find out, head to Mooroopna Recreation Reserve on Sunday, June 15, for the event.
Dunking will commence at 2pm, after five junior clashes from 9.45am.
To donate to MND Victoria through Karen’s legacy page, visit tinyurl.com/s4e78rue.
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