Sub-zero temperatures don’t normally scream a “casual day at the beach”, but from 2017 to 2023, thousands of half-naked souls stared down cold winter waters to help jack.org break the ice on youth mental health as part of Brainfreeze: Polar Bear Dip for Youth Mental Health.
Quick stats
Partnership between jack.org, Canada's largest youth network for youth mental health, and Surf the Greats
Started in 2017 on the beaches of Toronto, raising $18,000.00
Expanded to 6 cities across Canada, raising upwards of $525,000
Virtual dips spread across Canada throughout COVID-19 pandemic
Oh yeah, we had the pleasure of jumping in as a team!
Partnering up
In Canada, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24.
Brainfreeze: Polar Bear Dip for Youth Mental Health started as an idea two transformative organizations, jack.org and Surf the Greats, had to bring attention to this problem. The thinking was simple: Bring two communities together for a courageous, collective act that breaks the proverbial ice on the youth mental health.
The first event kicked off in 2017 on the shores of Ashbridges Bay in Toronto with eighty passionate polar bears and raised $18,000.00 – an impressive feat by any calculation.
Swelling into a national movement
In the years since, though, the Brainfreeze community swelled into a truly national demonstration.
Indeed, when our raisin team – yes, that's really us below racing into the water – found ourselves on the shores of Lake Ontario in November 2019, we were among 550 other participants and 90 teams, spanning six Canadian cities (Halifax, Montreal, Collingwood, Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver) who had signed up to fundraise and take the plunge.
These dippers smashed through the fundraising precedents set in previous years, too. The 2019 campaign started with a fundraising goal of $50,000, and polar bears were encouraged to set up personal fundraising pages or team fundraising pages on our Peer-to-Peer Fundraising module to collect donations.
Two weeks ahead of the event, participants and teams had had already hit and surpassed this mark, encouraging organizers from jack.org to increase their target another $20,000... the new goal wasn’t high enough.
Not only did participants meet the $70,000 days later -- they more than doubled it, raising a total of $150,314.50!
The wave of support
The incredible wave of support for Brainfreeze speaks to the growing recognition of youth mental health in Canada, and the vital movement that jack.org has helped mobilize through initiatives, like Brainfreeze, to help address it.
Jack.org is the only Canadian charity that trains and empowers young leaders to revolutionize mental health in every province and territory. All of the donations that participants collected go towards helping the youth mental health leaders at jack.org meeting this challenge by delivering educational Jack Talks, develop game-changing resources and advocating for effective policies that help young people.
