By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Once again, dozens of brave souls are expected to show up this New Year’s Day on Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles to take the Polar Bear Dip into the frigid harbor water, and many of them will be doing so for the benefit of Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.
This year the Red Lion Hotel is offering special room rates the night before and hot beverages on the morning of New Year’s Day. The folks from Vegetari will be offering vegan comfort food on site, and SeatSu Saunas are bringing portable saunas to the event for a quick warm-up.
Executive Director Priya Jayadev says staff and volunteers will be on hand to collect donations for Volunteer Hospice, and there are several ways to do that.
“One, you can donate through our website. You can go to the “Give Now” place and give through either PayPal or Stripe. They can collect checks, and the checks need to be made out to Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County, or you can do a direct credit card donation at the site, because we have a dip jar that will be set up for donation through credit cards.”
As usual, the event will get underway around 10:00am.
“Ten-ish…because, in case somebody thinks, “Oh, we need to get their at ten,” we’ll give them a few minutes so that we’re not plunging right at ten. The goal is to have people go in as soon as we have a megaphone, as soon as the countdown happens, people will go into the water. Hopefully, three times, and then come back out.”
Again, you can make a donation at volunteerhospice.org, or just show up at Hollywood Beach downtown.
(Photo by Jay Cline)