Every Super Bowl Sunday, thousands of people would descend on the beach in Long Beach, New York, for one of the city’s biggest and coldest traditions: the Long Beach Polar Bears Super Bowl Splash, benefiting Make-A-Wish.
I had the opportunity to film the event in both 2016 and 2017, capturing the crowds, costumes, characters and, of course, thousands of people willingly running into the freezing Atlantic Ocean.
I wanted to capture more than just the actual plunge. I brought both handheld cameras and a drone, giving me the ability to get up close with the people while also showing the enormous scale of the event from above.
And I had another piece of equipment with me that became somewhat of a character itself:
a stuffed polar bear.
The Stuffed Polar Bear
I would bring the stuffed polar bear with me and have people pose with it throughout the day. It became a fun prop and an easy way to interact with the people I was filming.
The Polar Bear Plunge already had plenty of costumes, crazy outfits and colorful characters, so carrying around an actual stuffed polar bear seemed pretty appropriate.
People would stop, pose with it and have some fun for the camera.
But eventually, the stuffed bear found its way to one of the most recognizable people at the event.
Enter Dottie
If you spent any time around Long Beach, chances are you knew Dottie Barriscale.
Dottie was one of those people who seemed to be everywhere. For more than 30 years, she was the face of Long Beach Recreation, handling payroll, helping run the pool, signing kids up for camps and swim lessons, dressing up as the Easter Bunny for the annual Easter egg hunt and distributing thousands of T-shirts at Long Beach Recreation events. The Recreation Department even created the Dottie Barriscale Softball Tournament in recognition of her contributions to Long Beach youth and families.
Dottie was also a regular volunteer at the Long Beach Polar Bear Challenge, where she became known for Dottie’s Kissing Booth.
A kiss cost $10, with the money going toward the Polar Bears’ fundraising efforts for Make-A-Wish. According to her obituary, Dottie raised hundreds of dollars through the booth.
And somehow, my stuffed polar bear ended up becoming one of her customers.
While I was running around filming the event, the bear made its way over to Dottie’s Kissing Booth.
Dottie actually kissed the stuffed polar bear.
It’s one of those completely spontaneous moments that makes old event footage so much fun to look back on. I certainly wasn’t planning on filming Dottie kissing a stuffed animal when I showed up that morning. It just happened.
Looking at that footage now, though, the moment means a little more.
Dottie passed away on February 23, 2025, at the age of 84. Her obituary describes her as a “Long Beach legend and icon” and documents more than three decades of her involvement with Long Beach Recreation and the community.
She was the kind of person who became part of the identity of a place.
So when I look at that clip now, I don’t just see a woman kissing a stuffed polar bear.
I see Dottie.
And I’m glad I happened to have a camera rolling.
2016: The 17th Annual Super Bowl Splash
The 17th Annual Long Beach Polar Bear Super Bowl Splash took place on February 7, 2016.
Temperatures were in the 40s, but that didn’t stop the crowds. About 20,000 people turned out for the event, many dressed in sea-themed costumes, superhero outfits and all kinds of other creative gear. The event raised more than $450,000 for Make-A-Wish that year.
At the time, the event had already raised more than $5.2 million for Make-A-Wish since becoming a fundraiser in 2000. The annual February swim was held in honor of Paulie Bradley, who passed away at age four in 1997 before his wish could be granted.
I spent the day moving around with my cameras, capturing the event from the ground and from above.
The handheld footage gave me the close-up moments: the people, the costumes, the reactions and all the personalities that made the event fun.
The drone gave me a completely different perspective.
From above, you could really see just how massive the event had become. Thousands of people gathered along the beach and boardwalk, all preparing to make the same very cold decision.
Run into the Atlantic.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that was my stuffed polar bear.
My 2016 video was later featured by Long Beach Patch, which specifically credited the footage to me as a local resident.
2017: Back for Another Plunge
A year later, I was back.
The 18th Annual Long Beach Polar Bear Super Bowl Splash took place on February 5, 2017, once again on Super Bowl Sunday.
By this point, the event had become a massive Long Beach tradition. Contemporary coverage described thousands of people coming out each year to run into the frigid water, and noted that the plunge continued to grow. The previous year’s event had drawn an estimated 20,000 people and raised $450,000.
Once again, I brought my cameras, my drone and my stuffed polar bear.
The goal was to capture the entire experience, not just the moment everyone hit the water.
People arriving.
Costumes.
Friends and families hanging out on the beach.
The anticipation.
The countdown.
The run toward the ocean.
And then the chaos when thousands of people hit the water at once.
The aerial footage helped tell that story in a way that handheld footage couldn’t. From above, you could see the scale of the crowd and how the beach transformed when everyone headed toward the Atlantic.
And down at ground level, I could get the individual moments that made the event feel personal.
The people laughing.
The people screaming.
The people questioning every decision that had led them to a February beach in Long Beach.
And, of course, the people posing with the stuffed polar bear.
A Time Capsule of Long Beach
The 2016 and 2017 Polar Bear Plunges are now little time capsules of Long Beach.
At the time, I was simply trying to make good video.
I was moving around the beach with handheld cameras, flying the drone, looking for interesting shots and getting people to pose with my stuffed polar bear.
I didn’t know that years later, the footage would take on a different meaning.
The Polar Bear Plunge was a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish, but it was also a snapshot of the Long Beach community.
Thousands of people came together every Super Bowl Sunday to support children and families through Make-A-Wish. The event had grown into one of the biggest gatherings of the year in Long Beach, with the community continuing to turn out in huge numbers.
And people like Dottie were woven into that story.
Dottie wasn’t just someone at the event.
She was Long Beach.
She spent more than 30 years working with Long Beach Recreation and became a familiar face to generations of residents. She was at the pool, at camps, at community events, dressed as the Easter Bunny, handing out shirts and, of course, running her Kissing Booth at the Polar Bear Plunge.
Having her in my footage, doing exactly what she was known for, makes those videos even more special.