“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
The Polar Bear Plunge 2016 –photo courtesy JoEllen Moldoff, Andrea Cohen
Andrea Cohen writes about the picture above: “wonderful, crazy Orcas folk who welcome the New Year with a bracing plunge into Cascade Lake. So cleansing and invigorating! Temperature at plunge time: 32 degrees!”
This was the 19th annual plunge. The Plunge, at the traditional location at the ‘swim area’ at the north end of Cascade Lake is a low key fundraiser for the Orcas Island junior rowing club (OIR). Donations are gratefully accepted at the Plunge.
The first Plunge was on January 1, 1998. That year local sheriff’s deputies Ray Clever, Ed Commet and Herb Crowe were auctioned off to jump in the lake. Since then there has been a theme for each Plunge. This year’s theme was “The Presidential Plunge.”
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