Plunging into the New Year
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Joshua Nichelson emerges from the chilly Youghigheny River Saturday morning after his annual polar plunge. Nichelson, of Clarksville, has joined the Connellsville Polar Bear Club every Jan. 1 for three New Year’s plunges.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Nearly 300 people rushed into the Youghigheny River Saturday morning to celebrate the New Year with the Connellsville Polar Bear Club. The club has hosted its annual plunge Jan. 1 at Yough River Park every year for 16 years.
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Umbrellas, towels and changes of dry clothes dotted the banks of the Youghigheny River Saturday morning, where folks turned out to chat, enjoy a live DJ and plunge into the river. The Connellsville Polar Bear Club hosts the annual event at Yough River Park every Jan. 1.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The Connellsville Polar Bear Club mascot poses with (dry!) fans before folks plunged into the Yough for a chilly, refreshing start to the New Year. A live DJ set the soundtrack of the morning at Yough River Park, and the Connellsville Area Education Association passed out hot chocolate to shivering plungers.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Randy Davis, of Greensburg, celebrates the New Year in the Youghigheny River’s chilly waters Saturday morning. Davis and Carol and J.P. Emanuel wore Incan festival hats handmade by people in the Andes Mountains.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Folks from near and far congregated at the bank of the Youghigheny River in Connellsville for the annual polar plunge Saturday morning. Because of rough waters, the nearly 300 attendees rushed into the water in groups, emerging cold and refreshed and ready for 2022.
Across Southwestern Pennsylvania, folks literally plunged into the New Year Sunday morning.
“We start on the bank and it’s miserable,” laughed Mike Parlak, a founding member of the Connellsville Polar Bear Club. “I’m one of the people that goes out and goes under. You can just feel the cold coming up your body. It takes your breath away.”
Since 2005, folks from near and far have gathered at Yough River Park in Connellsville for a refreshing – can one call it that? – dip in the river to mark the start of a new year.
“It’s a good way to start off the new year fresh, wash off all that old,” said Nancy Jacobyansky, one of the club’s 11 charter members. “It doesn’t involve a lot of planning. You can kind of wake up on New Year’s Day and say, ‘Let’s go down to the river.'”
Nearly 300 people found themselves along the bank of the Youghigheny River Jan. 1, where they rushed into balmy 46-degree water. The club, which has polar-plunged for 16 years, has taken a dip in the Yough in all sorts of weather.
“We actually had ice, a big, giant ice slide that had come in one year,” said Parlak. “We didn’t think we were going to be able to jump. Somebody procured a backhoe and chopped a big giant hole in the ice, right there along the bank. We jumped in groups.”
This year again folks plunged in groups; rain made for dangerous conditions, and a rescue team patrolled the bank, including two emergency personnel in a boat along the water.
The rushing waters welcomed seasoned polar bears and newbies alike.
“I want to do it every year and I forget,” said Jennifer Domonkos, of Perryopolis. When she was invited this year, she said, “I was like, I’m in.”
Scottdale residents Carol and J.P. Emanuel and J.P.’s friend, Randy Davis, were also in, for their second annual plunge (the 2020 event was canceled due to COVID-19).
“We run a lot of races and marathons and triathalons,” said Carol. “What the heck? Let’s jump in the river.”
Clad in Incan festival hats, the three chatted and took photos before the event’s organizers gathered everyone at the river’s bank.
“The excitement was overwhelming, even compared to marathon racing,” Carol said of her first plunge. “It was just – we have to do it again.”
Those who participate annually feel the same way. Raphael Ruggieri and friends Ian DiCarlo and Thomas Byers took the plunge years ago on a dare, and have started every new year since with the Connellsville Polar Bear Club.
“We did it, and it became tradition,” Ruggieri said.
“It was the best thing ever,” said Byers. “Got out of the water, and you feel so much better, ready to start the new year. “So I told my family and that next year, they all came. It was something to do on New Year’s Day. It’s a good way for us all to get together.”
John Paul Zimcosky agreed, noting the polar plunge is the one holiday the childhood friends are able to celebrate together in adulthood.
It’s an event that’s special to them, for more reasons than friendship.
“I proposed here two years ago,” Zimcosky said. “I got out of the water, I threw my phone, turned around, grabbed the box. She was just coming out of the water.”
Zimcosky’s wife, Audrey, said yes in 2019; this year, she wasn’t able to join her husband and his friends in the water because the Zimcoskys are expecting their first child.
Jacobyansky said moments like those make the plunge fun. She enjoys hosting the event with her husband, Frank, the mastermind behind the Polar Bear Club, every year and loves meeting new people and seeing old plungers alike.
“We’ve kind of met some people that we only see once a year,” she said. “There are people who do this just as a bucket list, there are other people who come sporadically. It’s a fun time. It’s good for the community.”
Attendees are asked to donate canned goods to the Connellsville Area Community Ministries.
Not very far away, folks gathered Sunday afternoon to jump into the Monongahela River at the Monongahela Owls Club annual polar plunge.
Other area polar plunges are scheduled for February, including the California Area School District’s Frosty Frolic and the Mon Valley Rowing Club’s second-annual event.
The nonprofit hosted its first event last year. It was scheduled for January but, due to a rising number of COVID cases, the rowing club’s president and coach Rachel Willson made the decision to postpone the inaugural plunge.
“We decided when we scheduled it this year, the second weekend in February is going to be our annual date every year,” said Willson.
Sixteen people jumped into the chilly waters last year, with dozens more watching from the river’s bank.
“The water, I believe, was warmer than what the air temperature was, which was actually nice,” Willson said. “It actually wasn’t that bad.”
She’s hoping for a temperate dip this year at the rowing club’s sole fundraising event, which was, last year, “a good time.”
A good time, and a good way to start a new year, indeed.