By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — The frigid February weather won't keep these Polar Bears from stripping down on the Hudson River Saturday.
For the third year running, the cold-water defying Coney Island Polar Bear Club will step aboard the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise sans clothes to benefit the Wildlife Conservation Society— and New Yorkers from around the city are invited to join them.
New Yorkers who volunteer to strip down to their skivvies are allowed to forgo the $20 cost of attending, but many may eat the cost just to enjoy some Polar Bear Club sightseeing, cruise line spokesman Jason Hackett said.
"I cannot speak to the appeal of parading outside in the middle of February in bathing suits, that's definitely a Polar Bear question," Hacket said Friday. "It takes an extra bravado to get on one of our ships in the middle of the harbor and brave the wind and cold."
"But it's definitely a fun ray of sunshine in the middle of winter," he added.
The event has grown since its inception, and many spectators now bundle up to watch the cruise-goers brave the cold all the way to the Statue of Liberty and back, he added.
Founded in 1903, the Coney Island-based group has made itself known for annual New Year's Day swims, which are also open to the public. While the club was started to increase New Yorkers' stamina and health, the group also does year-round charity events for the Special Olympics New York and Camp Sunshine, a charity for children with illnesses, according to their website.
Regardless of how the union between the Coney Isand Polar Bear Club and the Wildlife Conservation Society began, the idea of Polar Bears raising money for the Bronx Zoo and other organizations is just fitting, Hackett said.
"It's like the question of which came first in a Reese's, peanut butter or chocolate," Hackett said. "But it's a great marriage."
Boarding for the cruise begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises on Pier 83, located on the Hudson River at West 42nd Street.
