Story and photos by Larry Vogel

For the sixth New Year’s Day in a row, members and friends of the Edmonds Uplift Society gathered at Daphne’s on Main Street to prepare for the group’s annual Polar Bear Plunge.

“We’ve been doing this in Edmonds every year since 2008,” said Brian Taylor, titular head of the Uplift Society and “alpha bear” of the group. “It’s the signature Uplift event, and we look forward to it all year.”

Taylor grew up in the Edmonds area, but moved to New York City in 1990. While there, he participated in several New Year’s Day Polar Bear events at Coney Island, and found the experience addicting. Several years later, he returned home and opened Daphne’s, Edmonds’ own Parisian-style bar located one door east of the historic Edmonds Theater.

One evening over a few drinks, Taylor and some friends decided to start the Edmonds Uplift Society and launch a Polar Bear Plunge in Edmonds. They borrowed the organization’s name from a 1932 photo showing members of the Edmonds Uplift Society enjoying a few Rainier beers. Prohibition was still the law of land at the time, and the photo shows the group meeting in a basement room of the historic Beeson Building, directly across the street from Daphnes’ current location.

Taylor obtained a print of the photo from the Edmonds Historical Museum, hung it over the bar, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“We’re very grateful to the museum for letting us display their photo,” said Taylor, “and each year as part of this event we take up donations to help the museum.” This year’s event raised $340 from the Uplift Society, plus another $170 that was collected at the beach, he added.

On this cold Tuesday, the group began assembling at Daphne’s shortly before noon, clad in their signature white terry cloth robes embroidered with the Uplift Society coat of arms and the years each participant has taken the plunge. After toasting the Uplift Society founders and singing “God Bless America,” they marched down Main Street resplendent in their robed regalia to Brackett’s Landing Park, assembling on the beach to await Society Beachmaster Edith Farrar’s order to “drop robes” and “PLUNGE!”

The order was given, Farrar blew her whistle, and hundreds of otherwise sane men, women and

children ran down the beach and into the icy waters of Puget Sound. (The swim itself is open to all, regardless of whether they are Uplift Society members.) Some emerged quickly, but others stayed in the water swimming and splashing as if it were a warm bath.

But within 10 minutes, even the most hardy were out of the water and headed home, firmly resolved to be back on New Year’s Day 2014.