This year’s New Year’s Day polar bear dip was a big success in Southampton.
Organizer Jeff Cody says drone images of the event show about 800 people on the beach and roughly 200 people in the water.
“We had over 850 lbs of food bank donations as well as cash also that was donated. Huge success across the board and I look forward to an even bigger event event next year,” says Cody.
He adds, “It was a perfect day honestly, the sun broke free later in the morning and it melted a little bit of the ice that had formed in the morning. There was no wind, the water was calm. I couldn’t have asked for a better day for a great event.”
Cody says the length of time people stayed in the water for varied. “The majority of the people kind of ran in and ran out, but there were numerous people that stayed in for one, two, three four minutes, five minutes and upwards of seven minutes, and there was even a guy out swimming laps,” says Cody.
He says the Salvation Army was beyond happy and thrilled for the event and he’s thankful they brought their truck down to the beach to showcase the Salvation Army. He feels it helped encourage everyone to donate.
This was the third year for the event and Cody says he’s looking forward to the fourth next year.
