With the temperature at 2°C with overcast skies, the conditions were less than ideal for Ness Lake Bible Camp's 19th Annual Polar Bear Dip on Wednesday afternoon. The recent unusually warm weather created an eight-inch layer of water over the surface of the ice turning the snow to slush so for the first time organizers were forced to build a platform to get dippers to the edge of the ice safely.
None of this stopped the record setting number of brave souls who took the chilly waters of Ness Lake in the annual tradition or the hundreds of spectators who came out to watch. 115 dippers participated in this year's event smashing the record of 97 swimmers set last year. Joining this year's festivites were a dipper from the Klondike, a dipper from Brazil, and a dipper from Mexico.
The Polar Bear Dip is a fundraiser for the camp and all funds raised from the dip go to the camp's Camp Sponsorship Fund which helps sends kids to camp who wouldn't otherwise get the chance to go. When it was all said and done, a record setting $22,000 had been raised for the fund, which doubled last year's $11,000 total.
The top fundraisers for this year were: the Stoffers who raised a record setting $6200, Team Lighthouse who raised $3870, Todd Wilkins who raised $3145, and Hannah Mueller and Chris Taylor who raised $1300.
