Trails of Freedom was on the beaches of New Haven Harbor celebrating the start of 2011 with style at the Polar Plunge! The Polar Plunge for Parks offers a frighteningly refreshing way to welcome the New Year by submerging one’s self into the frigid waters of Long Island Sound on January 1st. Proceeds from the event, which is sponsored by the Elm City Parks Conservancy and New Haven Land Trust, go towards supporting New Haven’s parks, gardens, and environmental groups. One of these parks is the venue of the Polar Plunge, Lighthouse Point Park, where the historic Five Mile Point Lighthouse silently watches New Englanders of questionable sanity crash into the icy Sound year after year.