Are you crazy or brave enough to run into the North Sea on Boxing Day for charity?

It has become somewhat of a tradition in our beautiful little seaside town to enjoy a rather refreshing dip in the North Sea on Boxing Day morning. It's certainly a unique and memorable experience that will raise lots of money for local charities. Fancy dress is a must, for many dippers, with prizes available for the best! In previous years, we have had some fantastic costumes such as dinosaurs, Batman and Robin, Christmas trees and even a team of traffic cones!

This fun and frantic event has now been running over the last 46 years, seeing numbers soar from a handful of brave local citizens to over 160 eager individuals travelling from far and wide, desperate to run into the wintery ice-cold waves of the North Sea. Although as you’d expect, you are more likely to see the big numbers witnessing the excitement from the side-lines. The Boxing Day has become a traditional family friendly event with many families meeting up after Christmas Day to spending a lovely Boxing Day morning together.

The intention is of course that the Boxing Day Dippers get sponsored, with 80% of funds raised donated to the charity of their choice and the remaining 20% helping many local charities which are supported by Whitby District Lions each year. It is also a great opportunity to raise money for a special charity to say thank you for all their efforts and support during the year. 2018 saw over nearly £10,000.00 raised, with this year hoping to raise even more funds for local causes.

Sponsorship forms are available from The Whitby Pet Shop, 15 Station Square, Whitby or if you are unable to get into Whitby, please contact Lion Chris or Brian Harrison by email at robertharrison.sons@gmail.com or on 01947 897249 who can email a form to you or for any further details. If you don’t fancy raising sponsorship money, you can always register on the day at our registration tent which costs £20 per person. Please note that you must be registered to take part as our insurance does not cover anyone who is not registered.

The event kicks off at 10am on Boxing Day morning, the registration tent will be open until 10:30 am and is located at the Bandstand opposite the RNLI Museum on Pier Road. Fancy dress judging will take place at 10:35 am with prizes going to the best dressed adult male/female, best under 16 male/female and the best team or club. After the prizes have been handed out, all the dippers will proceed to run or jog into the North Sea!

Whitby Lions would like to say a huge thank you to The Whitby Pet Shop for registering our dippers, the members of the Whitby Sub Aqua Club who kindly volunteer their time each year, Medics UK for providing the medical cover and also to Esk Valley Coaches who have been great supporters over the years.