Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is a private, nonprofit that has devoted enormous effort to cleaning up the beaches in and around the City of Boston – coast to coast, from Nantasket to Nahant. And it has worked. The beaches of Boston are clean enough for swimming almost every day of the year, and the beaches of South Boston are the cleanest of all.
Last Sunday, the nonprofit held a fundraising event at the Curley Community Center. It was the Harpoon “Shamrock Splash,” a polar plunge emceed by SHSB’s hard-working Bruce Berman, who took the plunge himself.
Costumes were the order of the day. The photos above could not capture them all, but you get the idea. There were lobsters, Picts, colleens, superheroes, leprechauns, and dressed-up pets, along with some undecipherable masqueraders. The lobster (female) and the kilted Pict (male) took the first prizes.
The participants, about 300 or so, plunged at noon; it was a quick turn-around. The air wasn’t too unpleasant, but the water still hovered around quite chilly 40 degrees Farenheit.
The Shamrock Splash sponsors deserve mention: There was Harpoon Brewery, of course, and JetBlue’s towering tail section. The Boston Foundation, the Pierce Trust, the Saltonstall Foundation, Comcast, National Grid, Gillette, Russo Marine, MIX 104.1, Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Sullivan’s, DCR Massachusetts, The YMCA, and Keezer Sports all took part.
Think of them while enjoying M Street Beach this summer.
Bruce Berman of “save the Harbor/Save the Bay” is the chief instigator and a superb fundraiser for causes related to a clean, scenic Boston Harbor.
JetBlue was a key sponsor of the Shamrock Splash
Lobsters love the clean water off of M Street Beach in South Boston.
The costumed plungers line up for the “Best Costume” contest before the Shamrock Splash Plunge.
The costume contest winners. Awards were made by the dirndl-clad colleen and brown-shirted Darby O’Gill.
Chief Instigator Bruce Berman listens as Kenny Tallent pipes the plungers back on shore.
