PORTSMOUTH — Step one: Take off the towel.

Step two: Run like mad into the water. (It’s OK to scream a little.)

Step three: Make sure you at least get your shoulders wet.

Step four: Run like mad out of the water.

Step five: Grab your towel and warm up near the massive bonfire with all the other brave souls.

It will be the longest 20 seconds of your life, but what better way to ring in the new year than by taking a dip in the chilly waters of Island Park Beach on Sunday, Jan. 1?

The annual New Year’s Day “Polar Dive” takes place across from Schultzy’s Snack Shack on Park Avenue at noon sharp.

The event is a fund-raiser for the Island Park Preservation Society, so participants and visitors are asked to make donations at the post-plunge party at Tremblay's Bar and Grill at 514 Park Ave.

“Bring cash for the raffles,” said John Vit, one of the organizers. “It’s mostly gift cards.”

One difference this year will be the bonfire on the beach. No pallets will be burned due to a complaint last year over nails being found on the beach afterwards. (Vit insists that he and other volunteers have always done their best to clear the beach of nails in past years.)

“I’m burning firewood, and I’ve been saving cardboard and shredded paper and egg crates,” said Vit, adding that Tiger Landscaping in Tiverton is donating wood as well.

“We’re going to build it Saturday at 11 o’clock (a.m.). Anyone who wants to come down and donate firewood can do that,” he said. “We cannot accept construction trash and we cannot accept pallets. It can’t be anything with metal or nails in it. It’s got to be clean wood.” 

Vit is also accepting donations of citronella and lighter fluid. Anyone who wants to donate can call him at 401/952-1953.

As for the weather, Sunday could get wet, with a 50-percent chance of rain in the forecast. But it could also be fairly mild, with temperatures expected to reach into the ’50s. 

That would be a big relief to the 30 or so swimmers who took part in the 2018 polar dive, when the air temperature was 10 degrees and the water, 35 degrees. The R.I. Department of Health issued a press release that year, recommending the postponement of any "polar plunges" due to the "dangerously cold temperatures predicted."

A splash of color?

Vit is looking into the possibility of adding a splash of color to this year’s event.

He’d like to get some color powder, a non-toxic dye that’s used at “color runs,” and give participants the opportunity to take the splash while they’re “painted” in different pigments. The powder will wash off once swimmers hit the water.

“Frank Fusaro will be there with his drone; he’ll be doing the video. Can you imagine what it will look like with all those colorful people running in? I just want it for going into the water,” Vit said.