Plungeish

When Noa and I signed up for another Polar Bear Plunge with the team from Friends Meeting of Washington to raise money for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, there was a massive winter storm looming and single digit lows in the forecast for DC and high temperatures that wouldn't get above the low to mid-twenties in the weeks before the plunge. That forecast turned out to be accurate and between the Snowcrete storm and the bitter cold temperatures the Potomac was completely frozen over on the planned plunge day so we had to postpone. 

When our new plunge day rolled around on February 21st, there was still plenty of snow left, but temperatures were above freezing and the ice had thawed; however the a 72" diameter section of the Potomac Interceptor pipe collapsed causing the overflow of more than 200 million gallons of wastewater into river. That put a damper on plunging into the river, but we still able to go to our usual spot at National Harbor and the plunge organizers arranged for a pool water truck to set up a gauntlet of hoses and ice-buckets for the plungers to pass through. 

It wasn't quite the same, but we raised over $1,000 and the full Quaking Quakers team raised over $20k for a good cause. Hopefully next year after two straight thwarted river plunges we'll be back in the icy waters of the Potomac!

(click here for all the pictures)