NAHANT — Short Beach will feel oddly empty Friday, as the annual New Year’s Day Polar Plunge has been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.The Sonia and the Capano families decided not to run the event after 13 years of hosting it.
“We look forward to it all year — it’ll be sad that it isn’t happening,” said George Sonia, a co-organizer. “This will be the first time I don’t jump in 14 years.”
Sonia decided not to hold the event back in September, the two families usually begin planning it. Generally, the event involves hundreds of people who brave the freezing water off the Nahant coast.
“It’s just not safe enough for everybody,” said Sonia. “It wasn’t even in question.”
Five years ago, the families introduced a charitable component to the plunge, referring to the event as the “Freezin’ for a Reason” Polar Plunge Fundraiser.
Sonia says what initially began as a fun and different way to ring in the new year eventually morphed into something much more.
“Maybe five years ago, we had the idea to turn it over into a fundraiser for different charities every year,” Sonia said. “Over the past five years we’ve raised $60,000 or $70,000 for local charities. I feel bad for everybody — the people we raise money for, and the people that plunge with us.”
The empty beach will be a stark contrast to last year’s fundraiser, when more than 200 community members gathered on Short Beach to take a dip in frigid ocean waters.
Last year, money raised from t-shirt sales — and from raffles held during the after party at Rolly’s Tavern in Lynn — went to support the educational nonprofit, Camp Rotary.
More than $10,000 was raised to support Camp Rotary, a Boxford-based camp that provides kids ages 7 through 15 with a traditional American overnight camp experience.
The year prior, proceeds went to a scholarship fund in memory of family friend Kelly Martin, who was CEO of Bridgewell. Sonia says the event was able to raise $22,000 for the scholarship through its t-shirt sales and from prizes raffled off during the plunge’s after-party at Rolly’s Tavern in Lynn. Sonia hopes to bring the fundraiser back next year, when the virus will hopefully have died down.
