At 8 a.m. New Year’s Day William (interim facilities manager at Ness Lake Bible Campa) and his team used chainsaws to cut through six inches of ice to create a 15’ x 30’ hole. Their crew spent two hours removing the blocks of ice to get ready for the 23rd annual Polar Bear Dip at Ness Lake Bible Camp.
Over the 20 plus years the team at Ness Lake Bible Camp and the community have become Polar Bear Dip experts having done the dip in all-weather from -30C to +5C. The event has raised approximately $218,709 since 2001. Last year’s dip saw about 80 dippers with Mark and Carol Stofer who took the plunge after being the top fundraisers.
This year a recording-breaking grand total of 216 dippers which is 100 more than the previous record of 115. Total donations were $27,735.97 with the top fundraisers being the Stofers with $10,400, city councilor Trudy Klassen with $3,075 and Julianna Deweerd with $1000.
“It was so crazy to see so many people come and do the dip as well as spectate,” said organizer Dayna Penson. “There were so many people from all over that came to participate in the dip, one family went in together that were visiting from Mexico. When I asked them if the water was much colder here they said only a little bit with huge smiles on their faces. They definitely had a lot of fun.”
Rocky Mountain Ranger Eric Depenau last year said “we are really looking forward to doing the dip every year and hoping to get more people from our unit to participate next year.” And more people they did, they had 11 people from their unit do the dip this year.
Money raised from this event will go towards the camper sponsorship fund which makes camp possible for families who would otherwise not be able to afford it. Every kid deserves to go to camp and we have always strived to make camp accessible for all. One way we do that is by paying a portion of the fees for families that are not financially able to send their kids.
General information:
- Ness Lake Bible Camp was founded in 1953 and is owned and operated by One Hope Canada.
- Over 65,000 children have participated in our camping programs since 1953!
- Ness Lake Bible Camp hosted 1463 campers in 2023.
