Feel you have sins to atone for? Looking to jolt yourself awake for the year ahead? Or maybe you simply have a masochistic streak. Whatever your deal may be, we are looking for the coldest and boldest to join us for the 2019 Kootenay Co-op Radio Polar Bear Swim!

Happening at Nelson’s Lakeside Park at noon on New Year’s Day, you will get to spend a few icy minutes pondering your life choices as you join 100’s of your fellow townsfolk in the lake we all love.

This incredibly foolish event is a fundraiser for Kootenay Co-op Radio and Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society with a goal of raising $5000. Attendees are invited to seek pledges from their families, friends, and neighbours who would like to see them freeze their bits off challenge themselves.

If seeking pledges isn’t your bag, we would request that you make a donation to the event, as this isn’t just a fundraiser to help local non-profits carry on their work, it also isn’t free to produce. It takes considerable volunteer/staff time to organize, and we have to pay for insurance as well. Any amount will suffice, but $20, $1 for each of the years KCR has served the West Kootenay, would be greatly appreciated.

Seeing as West Kootenay folk have a penchant for dressing up, attendees are enthusiastically encouraged to don whatever costume floats their icy boat. This might help fool you into thinking the water will be warmer than it actually is, which is about 4°C. Maybe 5°C, if you’re lucky.

To help take the bite out of the cold, we will be serving soul-warming hot chocolate and chilli, as well as pumping out seasonably inappropriate beach tunes to convince you that this is just another sweltering day at the beach in August. It’s going to be a blast. Ok, more like an Arctic blast, but that’s what you are signing up for jumping into a mountain lake on January 1st in Canada, right?

Pledge forms are available for pickup at the KCR offices at 308a Hall Street, or you can request one via email from admin@kootenaycoopradio.com.

See you on the beach!