News

New Year's resolution to freeze their tushes

July 9, 2005, Salem, MA

By Tom Dalton
Staff writer, Salem News

SALEM — It was an unusually warm and sunny New Year's Day about 15 years ago. It was so nice that Becky Christie and her friend, Elizabeth Bookholz, decided to head down to Juniper Cove and have lunch on the beach.

After gazing out at the cold blue water for a while, Christie got a wild idea.

"I'm going in," she said.

"You're crazy," Bookholz replied.

Before she could be talked out of it, Christie shed most of her clothing and plunged into the ocean — and then raced out just as fast.

"I had some illusion the water would be as warm as the air," she said. "It was not."

After Bookholz died in 1999, Christie decided to make the plunge every year in memory of her friend, a former bartender at the Witch's Brew Cafe.

Starting in 2000, Christie made the mad dash into the near-freezing water accompanied by another friend, Salem resident Elizabeth Black, and an array of others. That tradition has continued to this year, when they decided to return to the icy waters on New Year's Day, but with a purpose.

On Friday, they will have the "Freeze Your Tush Off For Charity" event, an ocean dip at that same Juniper Cove Beach at Salem Willows, which they plan to hold annually.

It begins at 11:15 a.m. — and ends about a minute later — right after the third-annual Wicked Frosty Four, a four-mile race hosted by the Wicked Running Club of Salem. The road race also is a charity event, awarding scholarships to local students. It kicks off at 10 a.m. at Old Town Hall.

Both events are sponsored by B&S Fitness of Salem.

Christie is hoping the two events become a memorable New Year's Day double-header.

"We're hoping the runners run the race and then come and do a dip in the ocean," she said.

The ocean plunge will raise funds for the Salem Food Pantry, which operates out of The First Universalist Society at 211 Bridge St., where Bookholz was a deacon. Participants and spectators are asked to bring nonperishable food to donate to the pantry, which served more than 2,300 people last year.

Mayor Kim Driscoll will be on hand to read a city proclamation. The Rev. Marjorie Matty of The First Universalist Society will do a "blessing of the frozen feet" for all the swimmers.

For more information on the ocean dip, call Christie at 978-580-5016 or contact Brandi Dion at bnsfitness@yahoo.com or go to www.bnsfitness.com. The entry fee is any amount participants can raise or would like to donate.

For race information, contact Rich Tomlins at rrtomlins@gmail.com, or go to www.wickedrunningclub.com.

The organizers of the polar plunge say they plan to keep this event going and donate to a different charity every year.

On Friday, no matter how cold, Christie said she plans to be there and share the moment with the late Bookholz.

"There's always a few minutes where I just sort of stop and remember, and think quietly to myself about a friend I've lost and how important she was to me," Christie said. "Then I run screaming into the water with everyone else."