175 people braved temperatures of about -15 for the
annual Polar Bear Dip at Ness Lake Bible Camp.
“Last year was 216 dippers, and that’s when it plus five, this is 20 degrees colder,” said Camp Director Dave Horton.
“It takes a very unique, very intelligent, very brave community to do this safely and to do those numbers.”
Horton added the -15 degree temperatures are pretty close to the sweet spot for the Polar Bear Dip.
“The warmer it is outside, often I feel like the water is worse, when it’s a bit colder outside, the water doesn’t feel as bad,” he explained.
“I don’t know what it was today, but it hurt today, I was dying today.”
This year’s dippers raised $34,671.55, which Horton said will help between 50 and 80 kids attend camp who might otherwise not be able to afford it.
“Depends on how they want to use that money, if they’re buying some of the shorter, less expensive camps, or if they’re just using it as partial funding,”
“It’s a big number, we hosted 1,508 campers last year, so when you look at numbers of like 50, 80, it starts to add up fast, especially because we had waitlists last year.”
This year’s funding will be directed to helping kids at Nusdeh You Elementary and Van Bien Elementary.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
