Megan Rosenberg, 28, of Brunswick will do the Lobster Dip on New Years Day to raise money for the Special Olympics Maine. Darcie Moore / The Times Record
BRUNSWICK — While most Mainers will celebrate New Year’s Day in a warm home with friends and family, a Brunswick woman will be plunging into the frigid ocean to raise money for Special Olympics Maine.
Wednesday will mark the 32nd Lobster Dip, which last year raised more than $100,000 dollars for Special Olympics Maine’s program of sports training and athletic competitions for more than 4,300 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Special Olympian Megan Rosenberg, 28, suffered a stroke shortly after birth and has cognitive and nonverbal learning disabilities.
She agreed to do the 2020 dip for the first time, raising more than $300 so far. The handful of members on her team, Freezin’ For A Reason, will be dressed as law enforcement from the comedy television show “Reno 911!” as they run into the ocean at Old Orchard Beach at noon on Wednesday.
Megan Rosenberg cleans woodwork in the Brunswick police station where she works as a part-time custodian. Darcie Moore / The Times Record
She admits she was hesitant at first about dipping in the freezing water but has steeled herself because it is for a cause that changed her life.
“I don’t care how cold it is, I’m just going to jump in that ocean and call it good,” she said.
Rosenberg is an athlete who has competed in the Special Olympics since she was in high school. The experience taught her that while she does have a disability, nothing can stop her.
“I can do whatever I want in life,” she said.
Before participating in Special Olympics and growing a strong support system at the Brunswick Police Department, where she works as a custodian, she used to be isolated. She spent most of her time with her mother.
“I wasn’t really confident in myself,” she said. “I was very scared sometimes. Didn’t go out much.”
The first time she won a medal, she realized competing was what she was meant to do. She has competed in track and field events but is predominately a runner. A couple of years ago she won her first mile-long run.
“I remember coming off the track, looking at my coach and crying,” Rosenberg said.
She was equally emotional when she won her first 400-meter sprint.
“It was incredible,” she said. “I didn’t think I could do it and now I know that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.”
Rosenberg regularly trains at the gym and takes spin classes and TRX classes, a form of suspension training that uses bodyweight exercises.
After graduating from Mt. Ararat High School in 2011, Rosenberg started cleaning for her mother’s Brunswick-based business Chicks Do Chores.
“I got to the point where I wanted to do my own thing,” she said.
A friend who worked at Brunswick Police Department told her the department was looking for a part-time custodian. Rosenberg started in 2018 and said it’s a good place to work Monday as she jokingly chided officers who walked down the hallway she’d just mopped to reach the lunchroom.
Megan Rosenberg of Brunswick, center, competes in the summer 2019 Special Olympics. She is pictured with Brunswick School Resource Officer Tom Stanton, at right, and two other officers attending the games. Photo courtesy of Megan Rosenberg
She recently started working as a crossing guard, too, helping schoolchildren cross the street safely at the Stanwood and McKeen Street intersection.
Among her most recent adventures, Rosenberg had the opportunity to compete in the 2018 USA Games in Seattle, taking first in the 400-meter and third in the 200-meter. Now her eyes are set on the summer 2023 World Games to be held in Berlin, Germany.
That means more training with lots of running and gym time, she said.
It’s hard work but she’ll do it with a smile. A naturally bubbly person, Rosenberg said she has bad days too but smiles through them.
“It’s pretty much game face all the time,” she said.
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