By AMANDA HOFFMANN
Since 2001, when the brazen swimmers teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions, the Long Beach Polar Bear Club has raised more than $1 million — making 155 wishes possible for children in Nassau County and throughout New York City.
The event, which drew more than 7,000 people from as far away as Atlantic City and upstate New York to Long Beach last Super Bowl Sunday, started on a lark, when McCarthy wanted to commemorate his 40th birthday. “People have this thing inside them that they want to do something crazy, and going in the ocean in the middle of winter is one of the craziest things you can probably do,” said McCarthy, who lives in Long Beach.
When he proposed the idea while hanging out with a group of friends, McCarthy recalled, Paul Meyers, an Oceanside native who had moved to Long Beach, jumped on board. “We decided to go in the ocean on Super Bowl Sunday," said Meyers. "We really had a lot of fun and said, 'Let’s do it again next year.'”
The following year, a dozen newcomers joined the plunge, including Island Park resident Mike Bradley and his brother, P.J., a Long Beach police officer, who were getting over the loss of Mike’s 4-year-old son, Paulie, who had died in 1997 from neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system. "I was looking to do something in memory of my son Paulie," said Mike’s wife, Patti. "I was looking for something big — of course everybody gets grandiose. I asked if it would be OK if we did it for Make-A-Wish, and they said, go ahead." Paulie hadn't lived long enough for the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant his wish — a trip to play on the beach in Puerto Rico — but in his memory, the Long Beach swimmers vowed to make sure that other children got their wishes. "I've been to the bottom of the bottom, sitting in the hospital with a sick child," said Patti Bradley. "Children don't all understand the feeling of being hurt and sick and the testing, and it can be heart-wrenching, and when they can get the gift of whatever they wish for at the end, they rally."
In 2001, at the Long Beach Polar Bear Club's first plunge for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the group raised $12,000, which at that time, based on the average "wish cost," made it possible to grant two wishes. Last year the group raised $361,000 — enough to grant 48 wishes at an average wish cost of $7,500.
Gabby Sappington, director of marketing and communications for the Metro New York chapter of Make-A-Wish, said that since 2000, 18 wishes have been granted for children living in Long Beach, Oceanside and Island Park. "The plunge really has created this incredible following among people, which is beautiful," Sappington said. "It's something to experience and never, ever forget. Over the years, from what the Polar Bears have raised, that equates about 155 wishes," which she called "155 reasons to smile."
This year the stakes are going up, as the Long Beach Polar Bear Club will attempt to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest number of people simultaneously plunging into cold water. The record is currently held by 309 people in Finland.
Coordinating the record-breaking aspect of the plunge is Trever McGhee, who lives near Seattle and contacted the Long Beach Polar Bears after hearing about their cause. McGhee holds the Guinness record for "fire-walking" 597 feet on hot coals. He has taught hundreds the skill, and said he will give the Polar Bears an “empowerment talk” to psych them up before they hit the water on Sunday. In order to set the record, swimmers will have to stay in the water long enough for photographers in boats and helicopters to document the head count.
Plenty of past plungers will be on hand to offer tips and encouragement to newbies. Jessica Anzelone, 23, who raised nearly $1,000 last year with a friend, said that gradually removing layers as swim time nears helps to regulate body temperature — rather than dealing with a double shock of shedding clothes at the last minute and getting hit with cold air, and then frigid water. "Having someone waiting for you with a robe and some hot chocolate is also a good idea," said Anzelone, an Oceanside resident who is a teacher in Long Beach.
Thomas Ryan of North Bellmore is among those whose lives have been touched by Make-A-Wish. "I donated a kidney to my daughter and my son was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped in and gave us a real nice cruise,” said Ryan, who estimates that more than 100 friends and fellow firemen from Bellmore and Merrick will hit the water with him this weekend at his fourth plunge.
Not everyone who will crowd onto the boardwalk will take a dip. Patti Bradley will stay on the sidelines because a doctor's orders keep her out of the cold water. Instead, she sets up shop selling hooded Polar Bear Club sweatshirts. Bradley brought more than 1,000 of them to the boardwalk last year, and they sold out in 90 minutes.
Volunteers also carry office cooler-sized water bottles down the boardwalk collecting donations — which sometimes total more than $10,000, according to McCarthy. “I had a guy once put $300 in the bottle who said, ‘Ah, I was going to bet it on the Super Bowl anyway, so why not give it to a good cause?’” he recalled.
The plunge now also honors P.J. Bradley, who drowned during Hurricane Isabel in 2003. "My family has kind of been pummeled," said Patti Bradley, whose philosophy is that you can either get loaded with sorrow or rise above it all. "I tend to want to rise."
And for her, part of rising is raising money for Make-A-Wish. "People give me a hard time for pinching pennies," Bradley said, "but everything I save is a wish. My motto is, I make wishes."
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