The family that plunges together stays together. That’s how Jeremy and Tara Baker and Morgan Martin see it. They put their heads together in 2021 and decided to organize a polar plunge for their friends and family at Lake Lotawana. It has now become a New Year’s Day tradition.
“I'm from Vancouver, Canada, and they have had a polar swim on January 1st for more than 100 years,” Jeremy explained. “I believe it started in 1920. As a kid, I have fond memories of jumping in the ocean on New Year’s Day. So, we decided to do our first plunge at the lake on December 24th, 2021. It was a beautiful 68-degree day at the lake, and the water was still warm. We thought it would be fun to jump in the lake as a way to kick off the New Year.”
Like anything they do, he and Tara enjoy getting the community involved. So, they created some medals and called the next plunge the ‘Camp Baker 2022 Polar Plunge.
“Camp Baker is just what we call our house, and everything we do is ‘sponsored’ by Camp Baker, including the summer concert series we throw, ski club and other lake events,” he smiled. “Then, we invited the whole lake to participate.”
This all seemed like an easy, fun, great idea until New Year's Day weather on January 1st, 2022, hit and it was -14 degrees.
To Jeremy’s pleasant surprise, he found that a bunch of people were still up for it, including their kids, Morgan's family and a number of other ‘lake rats.’ They huddled up on Mary and Doyle Snow's dock at 4W, lit the fire pit, jumped in a freezing cold lake wearing all sorts of funny outfits and then celebrated with hot chocolate and gave out medals.
The first annual community polar plunge was born!
“We ended up doing it again for January 1st, 2023, but this time the weather was reversed. The air temperature was in the 50’s, but we had to break five inches of ice to jump in the lake! We had a good turnout and gave out more medals,” he continued. “Overall, the plunge is a ‘whole lake’ event. Right now, the only guidelines are that you must jump in the lake any time on January 1st in order to get a medal. Both years we've had a lot of Lotawana brave souls jump in at different times from their own docks and document the jump.”
This Lake Lotawana community event fosters friendship, family, positivity and hope and makes the New Year start out with a fun REFRESHING SPLASH!