It was a Polar Bear Swim of the traditional kind yesterday and it brought a smile to the faces of a lot of local school kids.

Let me start at the beginning with a little background. Each February our local Elementary school participates in I love to read month. They are encouraged to spend some time each day reading. To help provide some incentive the Principal sets a goal of how many books they should read during the month. If the school is able to reach the target then he will do something fun and crazy. In the past that has included letting the kids throw pies at him and sleeping on the rooftop of the school.  This year it was suggested that he should do a Polar Bear Swim and he chose Rubber Ducky Resort as the location 🙂 It sounded like such a fun idea that I didn’t hesitate in saying yes. When we chose Mar 22 as the date however we never expected it to be 20C and have no ice on the pond. I did check the water temperature though and it was still a chilly 4C at the time of the dip. Yesterday afternoon the kids arrived here by school bus ready to heckle and laugh at their principal. They certainly were not disappointed as he put on a good show for them. Not only did he go in the water but he swam across the pond. Then proceeded to go back for a second round with huge cheers from the crowd.  Of course if you know anything about our ducks, you will not be surprised to know that they were not far away from the action. I got a chuckle of my own when they all crowded together after the first lap and nattered away at each other. I can just imagine the translation might go something like “Did you see that crazy human, Can you believe he did that, He must be crazy, What? does he think he is a duck?”

I have to give a big shout out to Mr Blahut from Warren Elementary for braving the chilly water. Thanks for letting us share in the fun yesterday and for being such a great principal to our kids.