Boxing Day dip: Whitby Lions mark 50 years of popular North Sea fundraiser
Are you crazy or brave enough to run into the North Sea on Boxing Day for charity?
As this year will also be the club’s 50th Boxing Day Dip, the club plans to celebrate this golden milestone and the hundreds of thousands of pounds dippers have raised for local and national charities over the past 50 years.
It has become somewhat of a tradition in Whitby to enjoy a refreshing dip in the North Sea on Boxing Day morning.
It’s certainly a unique and memorable experience that will raise lots of money for local charities.
Fancy dress is a must for many dippers, with prizes available for the best.
In previous years, dinosaurs, Batman and Robin, Christmas trees and even a team of traffic cones entered the water, while the event even saw a fancy dress wedding proposal!
This year, Derek Matthewson from the TV programme Bangers and Cash will be judging and handing out prizes for the fancy dress competition.
As a thank you to Derek for supporting the Boxing Day Dip, the Lions will be making a £500 donation to a charity he supports.
Entry costs £10 per person plus a booking fee; this will be paid direct to Whitby Lions.
To pay your entry fee and request a sponsor form for the dip, please go to www.whitbylionsclub.org.uk and go to the Boxing Day Dip page to sign up and pay online.
Alternatively, you can enter and pay at The Whitby Pet Shop on Station Square and collect a sponsor form.
You can also enter and pay on the day by credit/debit card at the registration tent located near the bandstand on Pier Road.
People who wish to raise sponsorship for their chosen charity, with 100% of the money they raise going to the charity/organisation of their choice.
Participants will be fully responsible for collecting and then distributing their sponsor money to their chosen charity.
Whitby Lions will not be involved in the process.
This method of running the event has hugely increased the numbers of people wanting to take part.
The fun event has now been running over the last 49 years, originally seeing numbers soar from a handful of brave citizens to more than 300 eager individuals travelling from far and wide, desperate to run into the wintry ice-cold waves of the North Sea.
The dip has also attracted big numbers witnessing the excitement from the sidelines.
Last year’s dip was the Lions’ second biggest ever with 309 dippers taking part, raising £4,389 for the club to support their work helping local organisations and charities.
There was amazing support from the community, with at least 1,000 spectators joining in the fun.
Keep an eye out for festive street collectors who will be giving away a chocolate sweet for every donation.
To keep up-to-date for the latest event information please visit the Whitby Lions Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
The club thanks everyone who enters, the volunteers and especially The Whitby Pet Shop for taking time to register our dippers, Whitby Diving Club which helps to ensure the safety of our dippers, along with Whitby’s Coastguard team and Whitby’s RNLI inshore lifeboat, as well as the local community who generously support the Lions, dippers and the many charities involved.