Timmy Morrill leads the pack of participants in Monday’s inaugural polar plunge into the Winnipesaukee River as part of Franklin’s First Day celebration.
Timmy Morrill leads the pack of participants in Monday’s inaugural polar plunge into the Winnipesaukee River as part of Franklin’s First Day celebration.
Timmy Morrill leads the pack of participants in Monday’s inaugural polar plunge into the Winnipesaukee River as part of Franklin’s First Day celebration.
Timmy Morrill leads the pack of participants in Monday’s inaugural polar plunge into the Winnipesaukee River as part of Franklin’s First Day celebration.
FRANKLIN — In what appears to be the start of a new, New Year’s tradition, a quintet of brave souls took a dip in the Winnipesaukee River on Monday to welcome in 2024.
A fundraiser for Mill City Park, a public/private partnership to create the first whitewater park in New England, the event brought in $4,000 for that effort, but Timmy Morrill has his sights on five times that amount for the 2025 plunge.
“I was the lead bonehead” of the 2024 plungers, said Morrill, who is vice president of the Mill City Park at Franklin Falls board of directors and president of the Franklin Outing Club.
The owner of an excavation company whose family has been in Franklin for seven generations, Morrill admitted that, initially, he was disinclined to plunge when presented with that proposal by Marty Parichand, Mill City Park’s executive director.
Featuring a “standing wave” and an amphitheater on the west bank of the Winnipesaukee directly below and adjacent to Franklin’s municipal Trestle View Park, Mill City Park is one-third complete.
Phases II and III of the park will include a surfing wave and a spot for beginning paddlers and body boarders.
It is hoped that Mill City Park will attract kayakers, and along with them, the people who like to watch them do their stuff, to Franklin. Mill City Park is also being eyed as a venue for paddling competitions.
Morrill and Parichand have said Mill City Park is having a transformative effect on Franklin, bringing in visitors as well as new restaurants and housing to the downtown.
Even so, Morrill wasn’t immediately sold on the idea of jumping into the Winnipesaukee on New Year’s Day but did so after Parichand successfully raised $1,000 in pledges during an hour’s worth of phone calls.
“The water, honestly, wasn’t that bad,” said Morrill, adding that it “was refreshing, and it was good.” He admitted that “I expected to have a little scream (upon hitting the water) but I didn’t.”
“Marty and I are already planning on a competition between the two of us next year,” he said, “and my goal is to raise $20,000.”
Parichand had a different take on how comfortable the Winnipesaukee was on Monday.
“The river was pretty cold,” said Parichand, adding that “there’s a rumor that the temperature was about 40 degrees.”
While he didn’t do any kayaking Monday, Parichand estimated that 75 people came down the Winnipesaukee and that some 300 spectators had gathered along the river to see them and also the polar plungers.
Nick Mason, who is the secretary of the Mill City Park board of directors and who kayaked the Winnipesaukee on Monday, said the conditions, which Parichand described as “strong” Class IV rapids with a flow of 1,400 cubic-feet per second, were “great.”
He agreed with Parichand that the turnout for Franklin First Day 2024 exceeded everything in the past.
“I don’t remember that many people — non-paddler people — at Trestle View Park,” said Mason.
For anyone who takes paddling seriously, Mason said being on the Winnipesaukee on the first day of the New Year is a testament to his or her commitment to the sport.
“It’s like aspirational almost for some people,” he said.
