Important Announcement About the Polar Bear Plunge

February 26, 2026

Out of an abundance of caution and regard for public safety, the City of Rehoboth Beach has advised the Special Olympics Delaware not to hold the Polar Bear Plunge this weekend. The snowstorm continues to have major impacts on the city and cleanup efforts are still very much underway.

What the City of Rehoboth Beach took into consideration in making this decision:

• there are still portions of sidewalks in town that have not been cleared, which would cause the large crowds to have to walk down the streets.
• The Boardwalk is still covered in snow, as are the dune entrances to the beach.
• Our public safety resources would be hindered by lack of parking spaces and staging areas, and for an event like this, we need our public safety to be as ready as possible.
• Our streets crews are busy assisting our residents, some of whom have lost power, have limited street access, and have branches and trees down in their yards.
• Our crews are also assisting the cleanup of Rehoboth Avenue and surrounding roads to allow for more parking and accessibility to local businesses.
• Due to the size of the Polar Bear Plunge event, many additional resources from around the state are pulled in, and those crews have also been working on storm recovery, rescue and assistance throughout the region.

“Unfortunately, we cannot justify putting people’s safety at risk, nor can we shift our resources to focus on the event,” says Rehoboth Beach Police Chief Keith Banks. “Public works and public safety crews in the city and the surrounding areas have been working around the clock this week, so preparing and staffing the event isn’t feasible this weekend. This timing is unfortunate for all of us, as the Polar Bear Plunge is a wonderful event that we enjoy participating in every year, but we need to put safety first and utilize our resources properly.”

While the weather looks to take a turn for the better on Saturday and Sunday, the decision needed to be made today, and the current conditions diminish our confidence in being able to accommodate the event safely, and to give the participants the experience they deserve.

“The Polar Bear Plunge is an event we all look forward to in the City of Rehoboth Beach, so this decision did not come lightly,” says City Manager Taylour Tedder. “It needs to be rather extreme circumstances for us to make a recommendation like this, and this storm presented those extreme circumstances. We are proud of the hard work our city employees have done during this storm recovery, including trying their best to make way for the event to happen, but we have simply run out time, as a decision had to be made. We encourage people to continue to support the amazing efforts of Special Olympics Delaware, we appreciate our partnership with them and look forward to welcoming all plungers back here when it’s safer to do so.”