Starting at 2 p.m. Friday, Julie Smith will be plunging into Lake Michigan once an hour, every hour for 24 hours straight.

"Why?" You might ask. Is it for fame? Is it for glory? Is it because she's insane?

"People say I'm insane on a general basis, but that's not the reason," said Smith, 42, of Edwardsville, the Southern regional manager of sports training for Special Olympics Illinois.

It's money, of course, fund-raising in this case. Smith has nearly $3,000 pledged by supporters of the Special Olympics if she goes through with the Super Plunge, a new event of the 2006 Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge.

While regular Polar Plunges are taking place all over the state, with one scheduled for Feb. 25 at Carlyle Lake, the Super Plunge (Some Unbelievable Plungers Enter Repeatedly) is 25 special people at Lake Michigan near Northwestern University's Evanston campus.

Each person has to raise more than $2,500 for his efforts. This is the first year for the event.

"We wanted to set ourselves apart a little from the regular plunges and raise a little more money," Smith said.

With temperatures predicted in the mid 20s on Friday and Saturday and with Friday night temperatures expected to be in the low teens, they may not be apart as much as all frozen together.

The lake water temperature was 33 Monday.

Smith said she has participated in a regular plunge once and has been doing a few things to get ready for her upcoming ordeal.

She was at the Special Olympic Winter Games at Galena.

"I spent two days on the hills in shorts and a T-shirt with a sign on my back to raise money," she said. "I'm figuring on taking a lot of cold showers."

She won't be alone. Besides 24 other shivering people, she will have a support crew to help her.

"My crew is four really good friends who have seen me at my worst," she said.

She has a number of costumes to use for her various plunges, many with an Irish theme. The last one of the day is a pink ballerina costume to honor a participant who wore that costume last year but has since died.

For more information on the Super Plunge, or any of the plunges, you can go the Special Olympics Web site, http://www.soill.org.

To contribute to Smith's effort you can go directly to her Web page http://www.firstgiving.com/juliesmith.

Smith said she feels obligated to put out the same kind of extra effort that her athletes do. On a daily basis, she sees the struggle of Special Olympics athletes to train and compete.

"This seems insignificant beside that," she said. "It's for a good cause. We'll have a fun time."

Wally Spiers' column runs five days a week. Have a column idea? Call Wally at 239-2506 or (800) 642-3878; or e-mail: wspiers@bnd.com