Several Firsts for 2014 Polar Bear Plunge

A polar bear prepares for plunging. Photo by Len Villano.

In addition to the 2014 Jacksonport Polar Bear Club’s 28th annual New Year’s Day plunge into Lake Michigan being the coldest on record (31.6 degree water and 2 degree air temperature), there were a couple of other firsts for the event:

• It was the first time a Gibraltar Elementary School physical education teacher dressed in pink tights and tutu dove into the frigid lake. First-year Gibraltar phy ed teacher Evan Guell challenged his Kindergarten through 5th grade kids to perform more than 2,000 hours of physical activity outside of school, a physical education goal that, if met, he would reward by allowing them to choose a costume for him for the frigid plunge. “They did it, and that’s why I’m here in pink tights and a tutu,” he said, adding that he was “gifted” the tights by plunge founder J.R. Jarosh. Guell said he was joined by at least four other Gibraltar teachers at the plunge and plenty of his students showed up to see him honor his word. “I’m glad to be a part of it,” Guell said.

See the video here.

• Brian Skelton proposed to Gillian Giles before the couple took the plunge. She accepted his offer of marriage. The couple is from the Appleton, Wis., area.

• It was the first time the event was videoed from above by a drone copter. Ken Simonsen of Brussels videoed the event with a Sony NX5 attached to his octocopter. Check out his videos here and here.

Unfortunately, the challenge to raise $3,000 for the Leadership Door County Alumni Scholarship and Program Fund Drive by the end of 2013 was not met, which meant Inge Bacon, Gay Pustaver and Dawn VandeVoort did not jump into the icy lake. They had promised to take the plunge if $3,000 was raised.

Organizer Joe Jarosh said numbers were down for the 2014 event – 300 people compared to 700 in 2013 – and said that could be attributed to the bitter cold or the fact that New Year’s Day fell mid-week this year.

From information gathered at registration for the event, people from 11 other states participated in the 2014 plunge, including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.