Hardy souls take icy dip to benefit Indian youth club

INDIAN ISLAND – The temperature was minus 6 degrees around noon Saturday, but that didn’t stop more than a dozen people from wearing swimsuits and shorts.

The group donned summertime attire for the second annual Penobscot Nation Polar Bear Dip – all to benefit the island’s Boys and Girls Club.

“We had 14 jumpers and collected $3,136,” Carla Fearon, organizer and unit director of the nation’s Boys and Girls Club, said Sunday. “And some people still owe money. I thought it went really well, but I would have liked to see more jumpers. People don’t realize it’s really fun.”

A shovel was used to remove ice from the waist-deep pool set up for the dip before participants took their swim.

“Don’t make me freeze in vain,” Boys and Girls Club board member Paul Dyer said before plunging into the blue pool.

He re-emerged and quickly got back into his full-length jacket. A few minutes later, Dyer said it “wasn’t really that bad” because he heated up beforehand in a hot tub provided by Sandollar Spa & Pool of Bangor. “We really appreciate them bringing that up,” he said, as water dripping from his hair started to freeze.

The hot tub was an incentive for participants, said Fearon, who sat in the heated water for about 20 minutes after taking her cold-water dip.

The Penobscot Nation Boys and Girls Club was created in 2001 and serves more than 100 island residents between 10 and 17. The club provides after-school homework help, a computer learning center, and cultural and social learning opportunities.

Island resident Betty Kimball, who wore a white T-shirt, shorts and slip-on shoes, said she asked herself, “Am I crazy or what?” before lowering herself into the icy water. Kimball also participated in the club’s first Polar Bear Dip last year, which raised about $3,000 for the youth club.

“It’s kind of crazy but I figured I could do it again,” she said. “It gets a lot of people together to support the Boys and Girls Club, and we have fun.”

Some of the participants wore their American Indian moccasins right into the pool, and others had flip-flops on, but the majority bore the cold with bare feet.

“We drew people from all over,” said Pamela Colson Power, Boys and Girls Club board member. “We had people from the University of Maine, the island and the Waterville Boys and Girls Club.”

The Polar Bear Dip kicks off the Boys and Girls Club’s yearly fund raising, Colson Power said. The next event is a silent auction at the Black Bear Inn in Orono on March 26.

UM student Chris Sweeney of Portland won a skydiving trip during the event, donated by Central Maine Skydiving of Pittsfield.

Ray Mitchell of REM Safety Supply in Brewer said Sunday that he donated $500 to the cause after seeing the event on television news.

On Friday, Washington County Community College hosts its fifth annual Polar Bear Dip at noon to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Bangor. Last year the dip raised more than $35,000 and inspired the Penobscot Nation to create its own dip, said Scott Sockabasin, chairman of the Polar Bear Dip.

“Pleasant Point did theirs, and we’re always trying to [plan] some sort of fund-raiser, so we decided to try it,” he said.