With the January morning wind chill hovering near three degrees above zero, six members of the Bowdoin Outing Club took a (very) brief early-morning swim last week in the cold ocean waters at Reid State Park in Georgetown.

Why? After emerging from the 38-degree waters, Martha Boben ’19 explained, “The best part of the polar plunge is feeling super hard core for doing something totally absurd. I hope to channel the grit and enthusiasm I used to make the plunge into my attitude toward the start of classes this spring.”

Boben, who led the group with Ellie Schwartz ’19, said she never would have had the courage to leap in on her own. “However, with the camaraderie of other Bowdoin students running in by my side I felt excited and totally alive jumping into the freezing cold ocean,” she said.

Besides Boben and Schwartz, the plungers included Holden Turner ’21, Nick Purchase ’21, Srini Pandiyan ’21, and Dalia Tabachnik ’21.