For anyone who has ever been told to go jump in a lake, Tuesday is the day.

The Badin Lake Polar Bear Club offers its polar plunge at 1:19 p.m. New Year’s Day at the swimming area access off N.C. Highway 740 at Badin Lake.

Individuals can join together afterward at Five Points Public House in Albemarle, according to Drew Laucher, one of the polar plungers.

“That’s where we go afterward to revel in our stupidity,” said Laucher, a counselor at Richfield Elementary School.

While he says the event is more adults than children, anyone is welcome to join in during the club’s 12th year of the plunge.

Laucher said the biggest turnout was around 60, with 28 individuals participating in 2018.

“It’s all over in less than a minute or two,” he said. “Everyone plunges in, you have to get your head under, and then you’re out. We take a before photo and then an after photo.”

Laucher said the event has become a fun tradition.

“Some people I know well and some people I only know because they come to do that,” he said.

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