4,000 People Jumping into the Icy Ocean for Make-A-Wish Foundation
There were over 3,000 people in Long Beach, N.Y. this morning, however this was no ordinary summer morning. These people did not gather in the middle of august, but instead decided to jump into the icy Atlantic Ocean on Super Bowl Sunday, February 4th, 2009. People came to help the Long Beach Polar Bear Club raise more than $200,000 for Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that grants wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
For some reason that morning, after I woke up, shined my camera, I thought it wasn’t necessary to drag a tripod to the beach for the photos. I just came equipped with my EOS Mark III. The problem was that there weren’t 2,000 people like predicted at the Polar Bear Plunge; there was a miscalculation. There were way more Polar Bears on Polar Bear Beach than this tiny strip of beach could hold.
Crowded, at every centimeter there was someone getting ready to jump in. I was standing pretty close to the water and there was no way I could get any closer. All of a sudden one brave jumper decided to plunge into the icy Ocean. Once the stampede began there weren’t many pictures I could have snapped because hundreds of people just ran from behind me, passing me, pushing me, and jumping to the Ocean. They quickly realized that they had severely underestimated the temperature, and retreated back to the shore. All of this madness occurred within only a matter of seconds.
All of the jumpers were: frustrated, lost, confused, cold, sad, and looking for their towels.
Well what the heck, it’s all for a good cause.
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