It takes a special mentality to fully appreciate the benefits of diving into 33-degree water, but more than three dozen individuals tried it out last Saturday when they plunged into chilly Sebago Lake as part of the annual Polar Dip off Raymond Beach.
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| A team from Hannaford Supermarket in Standish braves the icy waters of Sebago Lake during the Polar Dip fundraiser to benefit food pantries across the Lakes Region on Feb. 18 near Raymond Beach. More than $5,000 was raised by participants at the event. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
Some of the participants jumped into the lake while wearing costumes and others participated as part of teams representing clubs, organizations, or businesses. But everyone jumping into Sebago Lake for the Polar Dip agreed upon one thing – how cold the water was.
“It’s really freezing,” said Abigail Cormier, 15, a student at Bonny Eagle High School. “I expected where we jumped in to be deeper, but the water was unbelievably cold.”
Cormier, a sophomore, was part of a team of students called the “Mother Teresa Club” which leaped into Sebago Lake on Saturday after hearing about the event from members of the school’s Key Club.
Chamber organizers had put out the word earlier this month seeking student teams to participate and the group of jumpers on Saturday included two different teams from Windham High School.
Staging the Polar Dip off Raymond Beach turned out to be a significant undertaking.
A hole was cut in the lake ice about 200 yards off Raymond Beach on the Wednesday prior to the fundraiser and Polar Dip officials expected shelf ice to expand as temperatures dropped to about 18 degrees the night before the event was scheduled to take place. The shelf ice at that location was between 3 and 4 inches when the hole was originally cut, but several days of warmer weather rising to almost 52 degrees later in the week prevented further ice formation and resulted in the loss of about an inch of ice before the fundraiser.
To assure everyone’s safety, the heating trailers for participants were kept on shore and only the teams jumping were led out on the ice and then brought back to the shoreline.
“Saturday was certainly eventful. Usually, we can all go out to the hole and watch the jumpers and the heated trailers are right there to change in,” said Robin Mullins, executive director of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce. “Not this year. I had to walk each team out individually to keep the weight on the ice low.”
Mullins said the Polar Dip typically has one or two Cumberland County Sherriff’s deputies from the dive team suited up in case of an emergency, but this year there were two from deputies and two from the Raymond Fire Department.
“The ice did break up a bit, but it managed to stay together enough to get all 10 teams, or 35 jumpers, into the water,” Mullins said. “The good thing was the water was only about 3 feet deep, so if anyone went in unexpectedly it wasn't too deep.”
Mullins says that preliminary figures from the event show that it raised $5,000 for Fed the Need.
“The word that comes to mind for me this year is community. The Sebago Lake Polar Dip raises money for the Sebago Lake Region Charitable Trust or what we call Feed the Need,” she said. “The trust donates money annually to the 12 food pantries in Casco, Gray, Naples, New Gloucester, Raymond, Sebago, Standish and Windham.”
According to Mullins, this is the third year that the chamber has conducted the Polar Dip and up until this year, it’s usually the same organizations participating.
“This year the Mental Health Advocacy Club from Windham High School challenged other clubs at WHS as well as the other high schools in our region, Gray New Gloucester, Lake Region, and Bonny Eagle,” she said. “The WHS Student Council and the Bonny Eagle Key Club both stepped up to meet that challenge. It was so good to see the friendly competition from our young residents for such a great cause. Food insecurity is real and it is an issue even in our region.”
This year’s Polar Dip included teams from Hannaford Supermarket in Standish, the Optimist Club in Gray-New Gloucester, Bangor Savings Bank in Windham, a family from Gray, Team Poulin, Busy Bee Laundry in Windham, Terry Stackhouse from WMTW, and the highest fundraising team from Alchemy Chiropractic office in Falmouth.
“How appropriate that our Signature Sponsor this year was Maine Community Bank. We’re so grateful for their continued support of the chamber,” Mullins said. “A huge thank you to George Bartlett and David Mair from Busy Bee Laundry and Nathan White and his team from the Town of Raymond for all the help with set-up and take down of the event. Lastly, the crews from Cumberland and Raymond Fire and Rescue were amazing. It is all thanks to them that all of the jumpers were able to take the plunge safely.” <
Chamber organizers had put out the word earlier this month seeking student teams to participate and the group of jumpers on Saturday included two different teams from Windham High School.
Staging the Polar Dip off Raymond Beach turned out to be a significant undertaking.
A hole was cut in the lake ice about 200 yards off Raymond Beach on the Wednesday prior to the fundraiser and Polar Dip officials expected shelf ice to expand as temperatures dropped to about 18 degrees the night before the event was scheduled to take place. The shelf ice at that location was between 3 and 4 inches when the hole was originally cut, but several days of warmer weather rising to almost 52 degrees later in the week prevented further ice formation and resulted in the loss of about an inch of ice before the fundraiser.
To assure everyone’s safety, the heating trailers for participants were kept on shore and only the teams jumping were led out on the ice and then brought back to the shoreline.
“Saturday was certainly eventful. Usually, we can all go out to the hole and watch the jumpers and the heated trailers are right there to change in,” said Robin Mullins, executive director of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce. “Not this year. I had to walk each team out individually to keep the weight on the ice low.”
Mullins said the Polar Dip typically has one or two Cumberland County Sherriff’s deputies from the dive team suited up in case of an emergency, but this year there were two from deputies and two from the Raymond Fire Department.
“The ice did break up a bit, but it managed to stay together enough to get all 10 teams, or 35 jumpers, into the water,” Mullins said. “The good thing was the water was only about 3 feet deep, so if anyone went in unexpectedly it wasn't too deep.”
Mullins says that preliminary figures from the event show that it raised $5,000 for Fed the Need.
“The word that comes to mind for me this year is community. The Sebago Lake Polar Dip raises money for the Sebago Lake Region Charitable Trust or what we call Feed the Need,” she said. “The trust donates money annually to the 12 food pantries in Casco, Gray, Naples, New Gloucester, Raymond, Sebago, Standish and Windham.”
According to Mullins, this is the third year that the chamber has conducted the Polar Dip and up until this year, it’s usually the same organizations participating.
“This year the Mental Health Advocacy Club from Windham High School challenged other clubs at WHS as well as the other high schools in our region, Gray New Gloucester, Lake Region, and Bonny Eagle,” she said. “The WHS Student Council and the Bonny Eagle Key Club both stepped up to meet that challenge. It was so good to see the friendly competition from our young residents for such a great cause. Food insecurity is real and it is an issue even in our region.”
This year’s Polar Dip included teams from Hannaford Supermarket in Standish, the Optimist Club in Gray-New Gloucester, Bangor Savings Bank in Windham, a family from Gray, Team Poulin, Busy Bee Laundry in Windham, Terry Stackhouse from WMTW, and the highest fundraising team from Alchemy Chiropractic office in Falmouth.
“How appropriate that our Signature Sponsor this year was Maine Community Bank. We’re so grateful for their continued support of the chamber,” Mullins said. “A huge thank you to George Bartlett and David Mair from Busy Bee Laundry and Nathan White and his team from the Town of Raymond for all the help with set-up and take down of the event. Lastly, the crews from Cumberland and Raymond Fire and Rescue were amazing. It is all thanks to them that all of the jumpers were able to take the plunge safely.” <
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