NORTHAMPTON — A group of brave swimmers will be gathering at Musante Beach in Leeds on New Year’s Day as the Polar Plunge makes a return after a two-year pandemic hiatus.
Participants will plunge into frigid waters along the beach to raise money for the Palestinian House of Friendship, a community center providing programs for children in the West Bank city of Nablus, part of the Palestinian territories.
“We’ve done fundraisers for the Palestinian House of Friendship for 20 years,” said Katharine Baker, one of the organizers of the Polar Plunge event. “Lots of people in the Valley have been supporters and donors, and it’s a wonderful program in the West Bank.”
Baker, together with her husband, Peter Titelman, first became aware of the House of Friendship after meeting its founder, Mohammed Sawalha, at a peace conference in 2002 at the Traprock Center for Peace & Justice, now in Greenfield. Sawalha founded the House of Friendship to promote civic engagement and education in the Palestinian territories in 1994, around the time of the Oslo Accord, which granted the territories autonomy from Israeli rule. In years since, the community center has shifted its focus to programs for children, including a skate park, music center and summer camp.
After befriending Sawalha and getting to know more about his organization, Baker and Titelman began to think of ways to support his cause. The Polar Plunge, begun in 2019, is one such fundraiser.
“It evolved originally from a friendship,” Baker said. “He [Sawalha] is a professor at a local university in Nablus, and he does all of this work as a volunteer.”
According to Baker, more than 15 people have pre-registered for the event, with more expected to show up to participate on New Year’s Day. Each swimmer is given an individual webpage to raise funds for the center. Local sponsors for the event include businesses and organizations such as the Northampton Rental Center, Amanouz Café, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Also present at the event will be Northampton state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, who will be there to cheer on the swimmers as they help raise funds for the center.
“It shows how a local community can impact bigger issues,” Sabadosa said. “I’m proud to support it and see people take a stand for this issue.”
Sabadosa emphasized that she would not be submerging herself in the biting-cold water.
“I’m not one of the plungers,” she said. “I’m just there to cheer on people much braver than I am.”
The plunge will take place Sunday at noon.
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
