Team Cottage Café takes home Iceberg Trophy
The only clouds hanging over the 11th Annual Leo Brady Exercise Like the Eskimos on New Year’s Day were literal ones. Though temperatures were balmy, overcast skies dominated Monday’s annual Atlantic Ocean plunge for charity in Bethany Beach, and wind and light rain threatened all morning.
But the weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the 302 splashers who turned out for the 2007 edition of the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce’s fundraising event, which benefits the Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation and, in turn, scholarships for local students.
Despite the less-than-sunny skies on Monday, Eskimos participants were able to enjoy both air and water temperatures in the mid-50s, making the transition between land and water and back again a bit easier than it might have otherwise been.
And it was a very easy time for one particular Eskimo — an honest-to-goodness one, amongst all the honorary ones at Monday’s event.
“I had a lot of fun yesterday. The water wasn’t cold at all,” said Team Coastal Point leader Shaun Lambert, an Inuit and native of northern Alaska. “That first dive proved a little chilling, but it was very close to the water temperatures in the summer back home.
“All in all, though, the water was warm and it was nice coming back out,” Lambert said. “It wasn’t at all cold.”
Lambert said his biggest challenge of the swim wasn’t the water but the tide, as the same storm front that brought the clouds, wind and rain raised tidal surges that swept swimmers down the beach.
“It was a little freaky after diving under – when I came up and turned around, I was heading towards the jetty. But I was far enough out to have been pushed around it, instead of into it,” he said.
Lambert said he is already looking forward to his second New Year’s swim, in the 12th Annual Leo Brady Exercise Like the Eskimos, set — of course — for New Year’s Day of 2008.
“It was a fun experience and I definitely plan on getting more organized for next year’s event,” he warned. Team Coastal Point brought at least seven swimmers during their first year of participation and raised the second-highest amount of sponsorship funds among all the teams.
“We’ll get Team Coastal Point up there in numbers and perhaps in the future we can give some of the larger teams a little competition,” he said.
That will take some doing on the numbers front, as 2007’s Eskimos event made records not in overall participation — likely thanks to the weather — but rather for the largest team.
Team Cottage Café, which not only enticed potential swimmers to join the team with the promise of door-to-door transportation to and from the event but also free brunch for team members, set a new record for the largest team — 85 splashers. That means a new home for the famed Iceberg Trophy, which goes to the Eskimos team with the most splashers in the water each year.
Team Neptune, last year’s winners of the honor and the trophy, kept up their strong showing with 32 splashers — eclipsing last year’s 23. But despite their effort, they ran well short of the numbers of Team Cottage Café this year.
The Cottage team garnered splashers for its roster through New Year’s Eve, with revelers at the restaurant’s late-night bash signing on with champagne flutes and plates of roast pork in hand.
“They called New Year’s morning and said, ‘We need more towels. We registered more people last night,’” said Chamber Events Manager Amy Tingle. The Chamber added some 30 swimmers to Team Cottage Café’s roster that morning, Tingle said.
Cottage Café co-owner Tom Neville said the additional 30 team members weren’t just from Sunday night’s revelries. “We signed up about 10 more people on New Year’s Eve,” Neville said. “Leading up to it, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we had 30 more total.”
In all, Team Cottage Café registered 95 people, with 85 of them actually getting in the water. The registration fees from Team Cottage Café alone topped $2,000 for the QRCF. Neville said last week that their goal was to bring in at least $1,000 in registration monies, so it was a triumph all around.
“Everybody had a great time,” said Neville. “A lot ran back in for a second time.”
The Cottage team also carried on their post-victory celebration at a New Year’s Day open house and pig roast at the restaurant. “We partied until about 4 p.m.,” Neville said. “It was a good way to start the new year.”
The Iceberg Trophy now sits on proud display on a shelf behind the bar at the Cottage Café, he said, and the team is already planning to do things up right for the Eskimo swim in 2008. “Oh, yes. We’ve already identified how we can do it better,” Neville promised.
Those who raised funds beyond their own registration fees, through sponsorships for the Eskimos event, were also rewarded with gift certificates from Tanger Outlets. Everyone raising more than $75 in sponsorship funding got a certificate for shops in the outlet mall.
The team topping the list of fundraisers was promised a pizza party in their honor, too. There, though, Team Neptune triumphed, narrowly beating out Team Coastal Point on a late tally.
Tingle said that, between registration fees and sponsorship funds, she expected the 2007 event to meet or even exceed 2006’s total of $11,000 for the QRCF’s scholarship fund, once the final numbers come in and expenses are deducted.
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Pets parade through puddles
While existing plans to get wet meant the rain didn’t have much impact on the humans who turned out to compete and revel on New Year’s Day, the damp weather did apparently deter a number of pets — and their owners — from turning out for the popular annual Hometown Pet Show, which was in its sixth edition for 2007.
Only 15 pets were on hand to compete in the shelter of Bethany Town Center, for prizes in a variety of categories, making for easy decisions for the judges in most cases.
Taking home the overall “People’s Choice” for the top animal in the competition, and also the “Best Pint-Sized” animal was Rosco, a “puggle” dressed as Michael Jordan.
All of the animals registered for the event received a commemorative ribbon, so any pet that was willing to get a little wet had a shot at some recognition.
“It’s a shame that nature probably kept a few people from participating, but it was also fun because it was a friendly, intimate setting,” said Coastal Point Editor Darin McCann, who was the pet show’s emcee this year.
“The saddest part is that the Bethany Town Cats and Safe Haven Pet Refuge didn’t receive as many donations as they should have because there were fewer people than expected,” McCann added.
Proceeds from the pet show go to the Bethany Town Cats group, which works to aid local feral cat populations, and to the Safe Haven Pet Refuge, which is being founded as the area’s only no-kill shelter. Those attending the Eskimo swim and pet show were also asked to bring pet food donations to help needy pets in the area.
Tingle said Wednesday that the Chamber would still be happy to take additional monetary donations for both Bethany Town Cats and Safe Haven Pet Refuge, if any caring souls would like to help make up for the lacks caused by Monday’s weather.
The Chamber will also accept additional donations of pet food, as were to be taken at the pet show. Donations for the pet charities should simply be earmarked for them when dropped off at or sent to the Chamber’s office north of Fenwick Island, Tingle said.
Sponsors of the 2007 Leo Brady Exercise Like the Eskimos included: Towel Sponsor ResortQuest Realty; Bethany Dental Associates; D. Stephen Parsons, P.A.; Delmarva Power; Creative Resource Group; Five Guys Burgers and Fries; Kaylor Kent Mortgage Associates; Steve Morgan with A. Anderson Scott Mortgage Group; Bruce Mears Designer/Builder; and Happy Harry’s.
Media sponsors were the Coastal Point and Great Scott Broadcasting. The 6th Annual Hometown Pet Show was presented by Intervet.
For photos of this year’s pet show, turn to page 27.