As the pictures in Monday’s newspaper showed, York County has plenty of men and women willing and able to brave the bleak Atlantic in January to help a good cause.
At noon on Jan. 1, more than 300 bathers splashed into the calm but frigid water at Old Orchard Beach during the Lobster Dip ”“ a fund-raising effort for Special Olympics Maine. This year the 22-year-old event raised a record-breaking $71,000.
And for those who missed this chance to chill out, on Jan. 9 a similar event will be held at 11 a.m. at Gooch’s Beach in Kennebunk. The Atlantic Plunge will raise money for Caring Unlimited.
Such events seem to be a success wherever they are organized. In South Boston, shivering hordes joined the L Street Brownies as they made their 107th annual plunge into Dorchester Bay. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club, claiming to be the oldest winter bathing club in the United States, also took to the water on Jan. 1.
All across the country, the start of the new year was marked with similar defiance of the cold. There was an “ice dive” in Excelsior, Minn., and in Chicago bathers crossed snowdrifts for a quick dip in Lake Michigan. The practice has even spread to Florida, and a TV station covering the “polar plunge” at Jacksonville Beach reported: “With air and wind temperatures in the low 50s, you’d have to be brave or a little bit crazy ”“ perhaps both ”“ to jump in the surf on Jan. 1.”
Even for those who are not crazy and brave, such an event serves as both a convivial community get-together and an individual test. Those of us without first-hand experience can only imagine the moment before the plunge, then the icy mind-numbing shock and finally the rush of warmth and satisfaction. By most accounts, the sudden chill of immersion into is not so bad once it’s over.
A hardy group, properly supervised and motivated by a good cause, can manage such a moment of mass hysteria responsibly. Since there is otherwise no good reason to get soaking wet in January, these various dips, plunges and dives are always organized for the benefit of charities ”“ doing much good year after year.
Perhaps a dip in January also helps put the season in focus. It could be that there’s nothing like a lunge into frigid water to bring one to calibrate the internal thermostat for midwinter.
— Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com or City Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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