By day, Reza Kholifar appears to be a sane person. He works in New Rochelle as the Human Resources Director for the City School District of New Rochelle. For the past several years, however, Kholifar has been going off the deep end, literally. Each winter he strips down to his bathing suit in the dead of winter and runs screaming into the frigid waters off the coast of Long Island. And he’s not alone.
As the founder of the Saint James Polar Bear Club, Kholifar did the first dive alone, on February 1, 2009. This year with a crowd of bemused spectators looking on, more than 30 people joined Kholifar in his mad passion, raising money for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and securing for themselves a Saint James Polar Bear Club t-shirt.
If you have any desire to join him next year click here.