Icy Plunge Clears The Head
A nationwide New Year’s Day tradition as rich as eating black-eyed peas for good luck is the local chapter of the Polar Bear Club’s annual leap into the freezing Big Wood River. This year, about 1,000 people jumped into the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island in New York, and the 82-year-old president of the Milwaukee, Wisc., Polar Bear Club made his 60th New Year’s Day plunge into Lake Michigan. Locally, six hearty souls—Chris Cherry, Ted Westfall, Ned Flanagan, Bryant Dunn, Thatcher Marstad and Colby Hanover—jumped into the river on New Year’s afternoon in Ketchum. Marstad and Dunn are veterans of more than 10 years of taking the cool plunge. According to Dunn, “The water was wonderful, refreshing and exhilarating, and the jump brings tremendous luck for the new year.” Photo by Willy Cook
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