By Doug Miller
In Long Beach, without a doubt, it¹s a brightly colored sweatshirt with a cartoon polar bear on the front. It¹s how Long Beach folks recognize one another on the occasions when they leave the barrier island.
The Long Beach Polar Bear Splash is now beyond a brand, it¹s a phenomenon. The Splash, which will be held for the 11th time on Feb. 3, Super Bowl Sunday, each year draws thousands of brave or merely generous people from Long Beach (and Long Beach wanna-bes), who jump into the frigid Atlantic Ocean to raise money for the Long Island Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Just how phenomenal is the Polar Bear Splash? There is every chance that in 2008, the event ‹ which began when two Long Beach buddies, Pete Meyers and Kevin McCarthy, jumped into the water on a dare ‹ will raise its millionth dollar for Make-A-Wish. It is for these million reasons, and especially for the sense of communal cause that Meyers and McCarthy have created, that they are the Herald¹s 2007 People of the Year.
Just how phenomenal is the Polar Bear Splash? When Gov. Eliot Spitzer took office in January and addressed the Legislature for the first time, he looked out on a sea of gray suits ... and noticed a single bright red sweatshirt. Spitzer pointed out Long Beach Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and his Polar Bear attire for the cameras. Weisenberg dared the governor to come down to Long Beach and jump in.
If Spitzer does, he will continue the event¹s tradition of bipartisanship. Republican County Legislator Denise Ford jumped in for the first time in 2007. ³It was something indescribable,² she said. ³I really thought, going into the water, I was going to suffer a heart attack, but it¹s something everyone should experience once. Knowing you¹re helping people is the best feeling in the world.²
Just how phenomenal is the Polar Bear Splash? Weisenberg, known as a master politician, apparently refuses to be seen in public unless he¹s wearing a Polar Bear sweatshirt. When he arrived at the Herald offices in October 2006 for his most recent re-election endorsement interview, he and his wife, Ellen, again dispensed with professional attire in favor of matching bright red Polar Bear sweatshirts.
³Harvey¹s our guy,² Meyers said with a chuckle. ³He¹s gung-ho. He jumped in a few years ago for the first time, and now he¹s there every year. I think it was right after he got his pacemaker put in.²
Just how phenomenal is the Polar Bear Splash? On a brisk fall afternoon this year, McCarthy took a rare moment to relax and turn on a Mets game. Right there on his TV, seated in the front row at Shea Stadium behind home plate, was a guy in a Polar Bear sweatshirt. ³I see them at the airport all the time,² McCarthy said. ³People buy them and ship them all over. We sell about 3,000 a year, so there¹s close to 25,000 out there.²
Just how phenomenal is the Polar Bear Splash? In 2006, when the temperature on Super Bowl Sunday topped 50 degrees, the event attracted a record 2,500 people. This year, when the temperature on Super Bowl Sunday sank below 10 degrees, the event attracted 2,500 people. (The Long Beach lifeguards, on their own time, kept a careful eye on everyone the entire afternoon, Meyers said.)
The sweatshirt has evolved from being a souvenir into something of a fraternity pin. There are now other items in the Polar Bear catalog, and Meyers said he and McCarthy considered retiring the original design this year. ³We were at the Long Beach Catholic School bazaar and we ran kind of an informal survey,² Meyers said. ³I asked people if they thought the sweatshirts had run their course and everyone said no. ŒI have eight sweatshirts in my closet,¹ someone said. It¹s a collector¹s item, I guess.²
For Meyers and McCarthy, organizing the event is a lot like having a second career. ³We start selling sweatshirts on Irish Day [in October] and go through to about a month and a half after the event,² Meyers said. ³Kevin¹s always running around like a complete maniac.²
As if to confirm that, McCarthy answered his cell phone last week from behind the wheel of his van, where he was delivering sweatshirts to Debi¹s Deli in the West End. ³We have them at Zamboni¹s, we sell them out of the house. I have Bobby Oliver and Marsha Shapiro in Lido selling them. We have people all over.²
It all began 11 years ago, when the two friends decided, on a whim, to go jump in the ocean. They froze themselves half crazy, so naturally they decided to make it an annual ritual. Two years later, their friends Patty and Mike Bradley asked if they would turn their very cold swim into something for their son, Paulie, who was 4 and dying from cancer. ³He was on the list to get a wish but didn¹t make it,² Meyers said.
So the pair started inviting friends, and then selling sweatshirts, and eventually collecting pledges. The first year they tried to raise money, they made $5,800. Last year the event took in $270,000, enough to fund 35 wishes for sick children. The recipients of those wishes offer testimonials that are available at longbeachpolarbears.org. Keep tissues close by when reading.
³It seems like it goes on forever,² McCarthy said. ³I don¹t sit down and think about it. It¹s something that somehow just gets done. It works ... At some point it does become overwhelming. But when it¹s all done and we go in the water we all sit back, watch the Super Bowl and go ŒAhh! We did it again!¹ The feeling is the best.²
The 2008 Polar Bear Splash will begin at 1 p.m. on Feb. 3, at the Riverside Boulevard Beach. To donate, visit longbeachpolarbears.org. To enroll as a corporate sponsor, call (516) 897-BEAR. To participate on Super Bowl Sunday, just show up and be prepared to sign a waiver. Bring a change of warm clothes, lots of dry towels and your checkbook. Make a donation ‹ and, of course, buy a sweatshirt.
Comments about this story? dmiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
