Joanne Walsh can vouch that the first day of 2022 was the perfect time to jump into Greenwich Bay.
Walsh is a mentor at Hoxsie Elementary School. She loves it.“It’s my way of having a …
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Joanne Walsh can vouch that the first day of 2022 was the perfect time to jump into Greenwich Bay.
Walsh is a mentor at Hoxsie Elementary School. She loves it.
“It’s my way of having a grandchild,” she said Saturday only minutes before noon, the official start of the Frozen Clam Dip for the benefit of Mentor RI, the program that has matches more than 200 students with mentors. But there’s more to her slipping on a bathing suit to help a cause she believes in. Plunging into the chilly waters for a first time was also a personal challenge. First, although not necessarily foremost, was proving to her kids, who did their best to dissuade her, that she could do it. As a mother, she remembers frequently telling her son not to do something that she believed crazy or too dangerous. Now this was a role reversal. Bigger yet was overcoming an attitude that has seeped into her life with the pandemic and after she had a fall.
“In the last year I’ve become very hesitant about doing things,” she said. She wasn’t going to let that feeling defeat her and she wanted proof - a video - to show her son.
Ryan Crowley, a supporter of the Mentor RI program who met his wife, Briana Faiola, when he was paired with her in the Dancing for the Stars of Mentoring fundraiser, volunteered to record the moment. Joanne shed her fleece and for an instant there was a “why am I doing this” look.
There wasn’t time to reconsider. Ryan McGowan was calling the noon dippers to the starting line. McGowan, who owns Laid-back Fitness in the Greenwood neighborhood of Warwick, teamed up with Mentor RI several years ago to add the “Obstaplunge” option to the dip. The plunge is the final element to the half-mile American Ninja Warrior style shoreline obstacle course that takes participants of all ages down the beach and back.
Joanne and about 40 others elected to forego the run and tackle the final challenge. Before giving a countdown, McGowan had the group repeat the Frozen Clam Dip oath that they only have themselves to blame if they freeze or in any other way concluded this was a crazy idea. Then when McGowan reached “one” there was a dash of exposed flesh into the bay’s calm waters followed by shrieks and, in some cases, uncontrollable laughter. It all took no more than two minutes. Then it was a dash for towels and clothes although Jo-Anne Schofield, president and CEO of Mentor RI lingered on the beach. The air temperature was about 50. There was no wind and having to cancel the dip one year when ice covered the bay, Saturday couldn’t be better.
Schofield was appreciative of the event’s sponsors that along with the dippers helped raise $10,000. CMIT, the technical support company that provides Mentor RI with computer hardware, programming and service was the event’s lead sponsor. Since its inception in 2012, the Frozen Clam Dip & Obstaplunge has raised more than $84,000 for Mentor RI.
Schofield said the Dancing for the Stars of Mentoring is planned for March 25 at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet.
“The Frozen Clam Dip and Obstaplunge underscores what we teach at Laid-back Fitness: that a resilient mindset is the key to enduring discomfort and achieving goals beyond our comfort zones at the gym, at work or in life,” McGowan said in a statement. “Our hope is to instill a similar mindset in our participants, so that they feel inspired and equipped to conquer challenges of every kind in 2022.”
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