We the Newcastle Greenpeace successfully recycled an old fund-raising activity used by the Tynedale group, they used to have a dip in the North Tyne on New Years day. Our version began life as a dip in the Sea at the beach at North Shields until Chris discovered that swimming was not allowed there, during an investigative bike ride during a Sunday afternoon.
So after a re-think we settled on doing it on the beach at Tynemouth, where no such restrictions are in place, but there was the fear of the freezingly cold water that awaited us. I thought that I would acclimatise myself to the cold water by having a cold bath, well that failed as it was soooooo COLD! and I froze!!
The perpetration for the Dip in the Sea consisted of going out the night before, getting drunk, having a wee boogie and finally getting to sleep around 5:30am. After a power nap I was up by 9am, a cup of tea followed and I made my way to the beach on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. Arriving slightly late to the displeasure of the others waiting meant that time to think did not exist and I subsequently stripped off, not completely though (did have to consider common decency) and just got on with it!
It started off like a sprint, we all went off as fast as possible with thoughts of it just being a case of running in to the required depth and running back out again. Well I for one did not consider a crucial factor in this scenario, waves those scenic things that surfers like to ride on can be rather powerful and so it became a struggle to get to a point where it was deep enough, and before I knew it, I was one of the last to leave the Sea and to my utter surprise enjoyed the whole experience especially the coming out again because of the relative warmth!
I have been sponsored by friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances and have personally raised around £50 and still counting while collectively the figure is probably around the £300 mark. We have subsequently decided to make this an annual spring fund-raising event for Greenpeace Newcastle.
We did this because Greenpeace need another pod, a capsule that activists stay in when they take part in direct actions especially at the high sea when they stop drill ships from drilling for oil. It protects them from the worst of the harsh conditions and any disturbance like water hoses from the ships crew and prolongs the stoppage creating a scene that the media organisations cannot ignore! Unfortunately the last two pods have been confiscated by the Danish and Norwegian authorities after previous successful actions. For more information: http://pod.greenpeace.org.uk/
Rakesh
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