Polar plunge season begins; Find out when Rochester’s polar plunge takes place

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Across the northeastern U.S., people celebrated the New Year with the polar plunge, running into freezing cold water to water for a variety of charities.

Thousands wearing swim trunks and costumes plunged into the frigid Atlantic waters off Coney Island, New York to raise money for non-profit organizations in Brooklyn. It was a similar scene in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Boston.

In Rochester, the 2024 polar plunge will take place on Sunday, Feb. 4 at Ontario Beach Park. It will benefit Special Olympics New York, which provides year-round training and competition to over 66,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Rochester area hosts over 40 Special Olympics events annually.

You can register, donate, and volunteer here. Walk-in registration begins at 9 a.m. the day of the polar plunge and the plunge into Lake Ontario starts at noon. In 2023, Rochester’s polar plunge raised over $300,000 for the athletes.