Hey
I haven't put anything here in a while, which is ridiculous, because I started this in order to write every day. But not ridiculous, because I still do write every day, but most of those days I don't put it here, though some days I do, and then I take it down the next day, and then some days I think about putting something here, but don't because I have no internet at my house, which is really a philosophical issue when you boil it down...
Here is an article I just scribbled which will come out in the March issue of Be! Magazine. It's not very interesting and I recommend not reading it at all. I briefly considered calling it "Chilly Charity for Charred Children" but thought it in bad taste.
The Paddy Plunge:
Polar Dipping to Lend a Hand
For some people, charity is a way of giving to those who have less. For others, it is an unqualified love of all mankind. But for the participants of RiRa's annual "Paddy Plunge," charity is bee lining it down the strand, and charging headlong into the frigid North Atlantic water on St. Patrick's Day.
If you go out to east End beach this March 17th, you may catch seventy to a hundred of them sprinting their way towards the water --- you may even feel inclined to join in. Now I know what you're thinking. Words like hypothermia and trove of bally lunatics, and no doubt a few others are jumping quickly into your head. Add to that the fact that the ocean is even colder in early spring than in mid January, and the fact that they dove in last year in the midst of a raging Nor'Easter. But to them, there's no other good time quite like it. John Seymore, who has taken the plunge for the past four years, told me, "It's absolutely fun," Naomi Neville, general manager of RiRa added, "When you're running down the beach, you take off all your clothes and your adrenaline is carrying you through, and you feel warm. Afterwards, when the cold sets in you have to have people there who aren't jumping to help out, because your toes and your hands don't really work very well."
Naomi recalls the birth of the event. "The first year we were open, we were just looking for something to kick off Paddy's Day. It was five o'clock in the morning and we all had to be at work in an hour, so we just did it to get riled up for work on St. Paddy's Day. Afterwards, we were all like, 'Why did we just do that?' and so we figured we might as well find a good reason for doing it."
As you've guessed, the Paddy Plunge transcends simple thrill seeking. For the past four years, RiRa Irish Pub and the Shipyard Brewing Company have organized the event around raising thousands to finance a camp for children burn victims. The camp buses teens from all around the north eastern United States to Maine in the winter for a week of skiing, sledding, skating and general kid fun. Naomi remembers how this all began. "There have always been a lot of firemen who come to the pub, so we started talking about it with them. We just figured that jumping in the freezing ocean was the total opposite of the burn victims. I suppose it just came about that way." Since then, the Paddy Plunge has become the yearly event that raises the most money for the Burn Camp.
Dave Petrocelli, who runs the camp, says it's just a place for them to have a normal childhood experience. "Here, every kid there is facing the same challenge. So that means that at that camp, they're not facing those challenges, they're just kids. It's just being a kid, being at summer camp, and not having it be about the burns. It's about being a kid."
And the kids really are just like any other kids. "There was two or three kids that had been there for a couple of years, they were rooming with a couple of kids who hadn't, typical kids, there was the bullying thing going on. Two of us counselors went into the room, and we said, 'If you wanna pick on anybody, you need to pick on us. They're with you, and you need to teach them how to pick on the counselors, and how to stand up to the firemen, and how to cause problems and hopefully not get caught."
You can't work in that kind of environment and not be touched by it. Dave's experience working with the camps has had a deep impact on his whole life. "By getting involved with burn camps and burn survivors, I've met the woman of my dreams, and now we're raising two kids."
It's not just the polar dippers that are helping out either. Everywhere Dave Petrocelli goes, people seem to want to contribute what they can. From free lift tickets and ski rentals for the kids at the Camden snow bowl, to the Rockland fire department serving them lunch. All of this means that the kids families pay nothing to send them to the camp. Not even for the transportation to get them there. The divers each year are well aware, also, that they are doing this all to help someone out. "Knowing that there's a good cause makes me want to bring other people." But make no bones about it --- it's cold. Really, really cold. That's part of the excitement for the divers. "It's like you're being stuck by a billion tiny needles." But it won't deter them one bit. This year is expected to have the largest turnout yet. "Ultimately it's for charity. Jump in the ocean one day a year, it could be a world of difference for a child. It's absolutely fun. If you don't think it is, try it." And it doesn't hurt that the divers can go to RiRa afterwards for a full on, all day St. Paddy's celebration. As Seymore told me, and the other divers would no doubt agree, "The best Irish breakfast is a free Irish breakfast." When I asked Naomi what she would say to someone who might be a little queasy at the idea running down an ice coated beach into near freezing water, she just said, "Just try it, you know, it's helping out the kids. It takes five minutes to help them out, and it's really exciting." John Seymore agreed: "I recommend it to everybody. It's something everyone should do once. Or, once a year."
There is also and auction afterwards at RiRa to raise money for the charity as well. If you'd like to Plunge, you can contact RiRa Irish Pub. For more information, or to get in contact with the Burn Survivors Winter camp, you can visit www.MaineBurnSurvivors.org.
