{"id":75656,"date":"2026-01-01T16:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/75656\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:53:10","slug":"polar-plunge-marks-new-year-tradition-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/75656\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar plunge marks New Year tradition in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Polar plunge marks New Year tradition in Pittsburgh<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people jumped into the Monongahela River<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767286390_815_wtae.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WTAE logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 11:37 AM EST Jan 1, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDozens of people jumped into the 35-degree Monongahela River for the annual polar plunge, marking the start of the New Year with a chilly tradition.&#8221;It&#8217;s kind of something I&#8217;ve done over the years here. I guess it&#8217;s my version of a flu shot, so I don&#8217;t get sick. I figured if the germs in this river don&#8217;t get me, nothing will,&#8221; Johnny Cavaliere, who has been participating in the polar plunge for seven years, said. Some, like siblings Robin and Darren, made the jump for the first time. &#8220;We always said we wanted to do it and this is the year we committed. It was really cold,&#8221; Robin Makar said. Others, like Frank Nelson, who has been jumping in since 1966, look forward to the experience every New Year. &#8220;It&#8217;s a way to start the year no matter what the weather is like. It&#8217;s a lot of fun, camaraderie,&#8221; Nelson said.Whether it&#8217;s a first jump or a 61st, it signals a new beginning for the New Year. &#8220;Every year people say, &#8216;you still going to do it again?&#8217; I say, &#8216;yeah, but the one thing is, when you get older, you get colder,'&#8221; Eddie Hollinger said.Proceeds from the event&#8217;s T-shirts go towards WTAE&#8217;s Project Bundle-Up.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people jumped into the 35-degree Monongahela River for the annual polar plunge, marking the start of the New Year with a chilly tradition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of something I&#8217;ve done over the years here. I guess it&#8217;s my version of a flu shot, so I don&#8217;t get sick. I figured if the germs in this river don&#8217;t get me, nothing will,&#8221; Johnny Cavaliere, who has been participating in the polar plunge for seven years, said. <\/p>\n<p>Some, like siblings Robin and Darren, made the jump for the first time. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We always said we wanted to do it and this is the year we committed. It was really cold,&#8221; Robin Makar said. <\/p>\n<p>Others, like Frank Nelson, who has been jumping in since 1966, look forward to the experience every New Year. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a way to start the year no matter what the weather is like. It&#8217;s a lot of fun, camaraderie,&#8221; Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it&#8217;s a first jump or a 61st, it signals a new beginning for the New Year. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every year people say, &#8216;you still going to do it again?&#8217; I say, &#8216;yeah, but the one thing is, when you get older, you get colder,'&#8221; Eddie Hollinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds from the event&#8217;s T-shirts go towards WTAE&#8217;s Project Bundle-Up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polar plunge marks New Year tradition in Pittsburgh Dozens of people jumped into the Monongahela River Updated: 11:37&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7241,28365,5609,38929,8779,38928,2922,13414,38926,73,75,74,38927,38931,38932,38930,10254],"class_list":["post-75656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-camaraderie","tag-dozen","tag-event","tag-frank-nelson","tag-fun","tag-jump","tag-lot","tag-monongahela-river","tag-new-year-tradition","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-polar-plunge","tag-proceed","tag-sibling-robin","tag-t-shirts","tag-wtae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}