Freezin' Fotos!
Just click on the mini-photo to see a larger version. See the great article on F4R by Rob Sullivan below.

Growing up outside of Boston, I used to watch the New Years Day newscasts as members of some local polar bear club splashed into the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just for the thrill of it. There were more than a few of these clubs around the Massachusetts coast and they always got air time.

This was always an amusing sound bite, but I never had any overwhelming desire to join in the frosty fun. I just figured these people were nuts.

Those were essentially the nostalgic thoughts flashing through my mind as I stood around with approximately 70 other poor souls at the S.S. Norden Club in Black Rock Saturday afternoon, knowing that in about five minutes we would be swimming in Long Island Sound. I don't know about everyone else, but I was thinking, "What in the world am I doing here?"

Well, actually I knew what we were doing there. We were 'Freezin' for a Reason.' The event was staged to raise funds for the Burroughs Community Center and was the brainchild of Executive Director Kevin Simmons, a longtime Fairfield resident.

The Burroughs Community Center offers a multitude of programs for Bridgeport residents, ranging from providing free tax assistance to after school tutoring. The amount and variety of free services provided to locals by the center is nearly staggering.

Given Simmons' hometown connections, there quite a few Fairfielders taking the plunge. Fairfield Ludlowe Athletic Director Dave Schulz was leading a group of players into the Sound, and Sacred Heart University pitching coach Wayne Mazzoni was also there, talking baseball and preparing for the deep freeze.

The club was teeming with Bridgeport politicians as well, not all of whom opted to take the plunge. Two who did go for a swim were City Councilmen Brian Crowe and Susan Brannelly. Crowe deserves recognition for wearing the afternoon's most outlandish getup, a full length red and white striped body suit that made him look something like a deranged Hamburgler without the mask.

There were media types there, too. Brian Smith and Ace Holleran from WICC showed up, along with Lennie Grimaldi, the gritty political columnist from Fairfield County Weekly. To his credit, Grimaldi was one of the few members of the press to actually take a dive.

The group of 70-plus began to stroll out of the warmth of the Norden Club and into cold reality. Holleran blasted a recording of the theme song from "Rocky" to lead the charge, along side of Crowe who was banging on the ceremonial gong, an empty silver punch bowl.

As I stepped outside, the wind was whipping and the clouds were pregnant with the threat of snow. I didn't feel much like Rocky. Unless of course, Apollo Creed was waiting somewhere on the beach to pummel me.

But as I walked across the sand I saw a crowd of approximately 200 people hootin' and hollerin' and cheering us on. I saw a few familiar faces in the crown and heard them laughingly question my sanity. Then, suddenly, we were there, face to face with the ominous salt water. I was about to enter the drink, and I was already cold enough standing in my shorts on the beach and shuddering, thinking about being submerged in the sea.

Suddenly, the signal was given and the moment of truth had arrived. Some ran into the water and some waded (or maybe waddled). The cold was instantaneous, but surprisingly the water was pretty deep at that stretch of beach. I was up to my waist pretty quickly, and I then dove underneath for a quick dunk. The dip was refreshing, if you consider a brisk 39 degrees refreshing.

Swimming is great exercise, but I wouldn't call this swimming. The whole plunge couldn't have lasted more than 30 seconds. The entire horde of us wasted no time in turning around and getting the heck out of there. I quickly found Gerri Whitlock from Fairfield, my friend and designated towel holder. I buried my body in the oversized piece of cloth and raced for the Norden Club and a spot by the crackling fire. So we were nuts. But it was over. And although the exact figures were not in, Simmons told the crowd afterwards that he expected to have raised about $55,000 for the Burroughs Community Center. So maybe we weren't crazy. Maybe there was a reason for our freezin.'

Reprinted with permission of The Fairfield Minuteman.