Over 700 brave souls decided to tread the water right behind me here at Coronation Park in Oakville to raise money for good cause. 3, 2, 1, go! And that's exactly how these people decided to ring in 2023. It's now the 38th year that the courage Polar Bear Dip is taking place. From the controversial to the whimsical, participants came dressed to the 9 to take the plunge into the cold waters of Lake Ontario. Aside from the fun of the dip, the event raises money for the charity World Vision to complete clean water projects in developing countries. Todd Courage, the co-founder of the dip, says the event all got started because of his mom. The 30 years ago that our mother told that my brother and I were laying on the couch not doing anything after New Year's Eve festivities to do up, get up and do something. And we sort of hummed in hot and she said, you need to wake up when you go jump in the lake and come back out. We thought it was a good idea. So we went, she joined us, we had a few friends come with us, and we've been doing it ever since. As for how this year's plunge felt for participants? It was fantastic, don't ever do it in your life. Fantastic! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Amazing! It's so cool! One of the ways to do the new year! It's the first time the event is in person after two years of virtual dips. For those who decided to take the cold plunge, there was no shortage of reasons to do it. It's just, it's one of those things that we've always been like, we should do it, like let's do it. And this year we finally decided to do it and it's for a good cause, so we thought why not. The weather's a lot nicer this year than it's been previous year, so we got pretty lucky. I'm out here supporting a similar mission, like I myself, I started my own endeavor, but I'm here to support people with like-minded goals. I've actually never done it, so this is a good time. I just turned 25 a few days ago, so it's a good time to do it. It's the best alarm clock there is if you will. Water for water. This year's dip raised over $100,000 for world vision. If there's any doubt in the minds of those who think they can't do the dip, Kurt says it's more enjoyable than it looks. Well, it's a bucket list item for a lot of people to do it once and it's not as bad as you think. It's like pins and needles when you're first going in, but when you're coming out, you feel totally rejuvenated, ready for the new year. Following today's dip, it's estimated that about $2.3 million has been raised for clean water over the event's history. For more information on the event, you can visit their website at polarbaredip.ca. For Halt & News, in Oakville, I'm Ed Rajan.