The Passaic County-
Paterson family aff air
For his entire life, Eddie Akins Jr.
couldn’t remember a time when his fa-
ther, and Passaic County Sheriff’s SOA
Local 286 president, had ever done
something wrong. After all, the Akins
family of law enforcement officers ded-
icate their careers to doing the right
thing. That all changed, though, when
Eddie Jr. of Paterson Local 1 joined his
father for the first time at the Seaside
Heights Polar Bear Plunge.
“The funny thing is, my father doesn’t
mess up ever in his life,” Eddie Jr.
shared. “And then he forgets his bathing
suit at home.”
After 20 years of taking the plunge,
Eddie Akins Sr. thought it was time to
introduce his son to one of the most
spirited causes that law enforcement
gives back to year after year. But when it
was time to take the icy dive, he realized
that he had forgotten a basic plunge ne-
cessity.
“Guess who had to lend him a bath-
ing suit for the day?” Eddie Jr. mused. “I
did.”
Thankfully, Eddie Jr. had worn un-
derwear under his trunks, and with
his pregnant wife supporting from the
shoreline, he was not afraid to strip down for what would certainly be a
memorable first plunge. As for Eddie
Sr., he had little remorse for taking the
loaner from his son.
“I’ve been cleaning up his mistakes
for 27 years, so I don’t feel so bad,” Akins
joked.
While Eddie Sr. and Eddie Jr. prepared
to leap into the ocean along with 15 oth-
and beyond and be excellent with ev-
erything we do. These are a great bunch
of guys who get involved and who have
been doing so for a long time.”
For Parsells, that’s 14 years plunging;
Graham has been doing it since 1998.
You could say that they’ve seen it all,
while also having had plenty of opportu- nities to show off their creativity. “We’ve
dressed up as jesters, we did Santa Claus
one year, and another year, we reached
out to a company that makes wrestling
singlets and went as wrestlers. That was
one of our favorites,” Graham recalls.
“We try to mix it up every year and keep
it fresh, keep people surprised.”
26th Annual
Polar Bear
Plunge
er Local 286 members, they made sure
to recognize the rest of the Akins tribe,
the other Eddie Jr. of Paterson Local 1
and daughter Megan Akins of Totowa
Local 80, who were busy looking out
for the community while what seemed
like the rest of law enforcement crowd-
ed Seaside Heights in support of Special
Olympics.
“Although it’s a big department thing,
it’s a family thing too,” shared Akins.
“We get an opportunity to come out to-
gether.”
The Akins duo showed a different
meaning of family sacrifice as they took
the icy dip together, boxers and all. And
yes, we have the picture to prove it.
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ MARCH 2019 59