For the first time in years, the Courage family won't be jumping into Lake Ontario at Coronation Park this New Year's Day, but the Courage Polar Bear Dip for World Vision, can't be stopped by COVID-19.
Founders Trent and Todd Courage have been working with volunteers since August to move their New Year's Day bash from the shores of Lake Ontario to the virtual space. They're encouraging everyone to join them in ringing in the New Year a little differently this year, via the Internet from any personal body of ice water, be that in a kiddie pool, bathtub or neighbourhood snowbank.
Although this year’s event can't be in person, organizers promise it will be no less of a spectacle, with activities for the whole family: live music, a costume contest with winners based on audience participation, and videos of participants dipping safely from their own homes.
Livestream festivities begin online at polarbeardip.ca at 11:30 a.m. January 1. Participants can upload pictures of their costumes from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. for the costume contests, winners will be announced at 4 p.m.
“COVID has not cancelled our Polar Bear Dip," says Trent. “It’s a grassroots event that is a yearly tradition for a lot of families in Halton and the Greater Toronto Area. People come from all over actually, and we wanted to keep that going for them as well.”
The dip was born on New Year’s Day 1985 when Trent and Todd were 18 and 22, groggily heeding their mother Gaye’s suggestion to “go jump in the lake.” Gaye jumped in the lake that first year too, and has every year since, save for one.
“It started as a fun thing at first, and it kept going,” Gaye reminisces. Friends joined and word spread. In the early days, “a few of us did it, and it really did refresh us and make us feel alive," Todd says. "It grew and grew every year until we took it to Coronation Park."
As the family event snowballed into a community activity, the family decided to try to raise some money with the event, partnering with World Vision in 1995 and raising over $1.9 million for clean water projects since. The 11 members of the Courage clan (Gaye, Trent and Todd, their spouses and children) all participate as do some 500 to 800 fellow “dippers”, thousands of spectators, 50 to 80 volunteers and up to 20 businesses and organizations.
“Traditions and customs are really important for people right now,” Trent says. “If you’ve never done it, you can start a new tradition this year. If you’ve done it in the past, please come and do it this year. 2020 has definitely been a year full of change, but the need for clean water has not changed and is in fact even more critical for communities.”
This year's donations will go to clean water projects in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2009, World Vision invited the family to visit Rwanda to see for themselves how the proceeds of their fundraisers were being used. Even as a world traveller retired from a career in the airline industry, Gaye describes the trip as eye-opening.
“It made a lasting impression on all of us,” she says. “All of the people I met were such marvelous family people, and they tried very hard to survive and keep good morale. Water is the most important thing. If you have water, you can grow things, and you can have the strength and ability to go to school, it’s that simple. It’s a cycle. The world is global now and people are travelling all around the world. When people can bring themselves to a point where they can survive and go to school and be educated, the whole world benefits by what they have done.”
Tips for Dip Day
Gaye suggests rubber bottomed swim shoes to protect your feet from stones and ice. Also, “you don’t have to get your hair wet. You can just go in and dunk quickly.” It helps to recruit a friend who will stand at the ready with a warm housecoat, who can cover you up the second you get out. “You psych it up in your mind and once you’re in, it’s not bad at all,” she says. And finally, she suggests you stand on a towel to put your socks and shoes back on. “Then you’re good!”
Trent has these words of advice: “You want to stay comfortable and warm before you jump and as soon as you come back out, you need to immediately get warm again. As far as mentally preparing yourself: it’s a fun event, it wakes you up, it gets you started for the new year, and maybe it checks off a bucket list. Whatever motivates you is why you should do it.”
Get Inspired
Carlo Espejo with World Vision gets friends to pour ice water on him:
Watch some Courage family members dip in their backyard:
