You can start your own Skinny Dip Day team

It’s easier than you think, and three years in, I can tell you it’s worth it

This is a post about not joining Team Planet Nude.

Well, mostly. Stick around to the end and I’ll happily take your donation. But the real reason I’m writing is to tell you about something bigger than our team, and to maybe nudge a few of you to go start one of your own.

For three years now, Planet Nude has fielded a team for Skinny Dip Day, the annual fundraiser for the Fistula Foundation. It has been, hands down, one of the most rewarding things we do all year. We’ve watched readers dip from lakes and rivers and backyard pools all over the world, and together we’ve funded real surgeries for real women living with obstetric fistula. There is something genuinely moving about a scattered, oddball community deciding to pull in the same direction for a week.

And here’s the thing: you can have that too.

Skinny Dip Day isn’t a closed club. Anyone can start a team, a nudist resort, a beach group, a podcast audience, a circle of friends, a single determined person with a kiddie pool. You set up a page, you rally whoever you can, you take a dip, and every dollar you raise goes straight to curing women of one of the most isolating, shame-inducing conditions on earth. That’s it. The whole thing is run by the relentlessly good-hearted Thomas Francine, and it’s about as low-pressure as fundraising gets.

If you’ve ever read one of our Skinny Dip Day posts and thought “I’d love to be part of something like that,” this is your sign. Don’t join our team. Build your own.

It’s not too late to get one going before July 11, but the sooner you start, the more you can raise. Round up your people. Pick your water. Make a little noise.

And yes, okay, if starting a team sounds like more than you’ve got the bandwidth for this year, you’re always welcome to join ours instead. Either way, you’ll be helping. 🪐