Man jumps into Lake Tahoe for clothes donation project

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (KTXL) — A man is jumping into Lake Tahoe fully clothed every night in March to raise awareness about donating clothes to those in need.  

FOX40 met Adrian Delli-Colli last week while reporting on a story about bears.

Delli-Colli and his friends happened to be visiting a beach where FOX40 was shooting video of Lake Tahoe and he talked about bears.

“And we live in this amazing spot where there’s lots of wildlife,” Delli-Colli said

Then Delli-Colli told FOX40 something unexpected.

“So, I’m going to jump in this lake with this outfit,” Delli-Colli said.

Delli-Colli works at Palisades Tahoe and is the founder of an organization called the Concept Project, which he said creates change one concept at a time.

In his latest project, Delli-Colli is raising awareness about the need for clothing for the homeless.

Delli-Colli is spotlighting the issue by jumping in icy waters in a different set of clothes every day during the month of March.

“Eighth jump. Here we go,” Delli-Colli said.

Delli-Colli washes and dries the clothes after each jump, and then donates them to the Eddy House, a nonprofit that helps the homeless.

Delli-Colli is hoping more people will join the effort and donate clothing to a nonprofit in their own communities.

“So, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. You just need your clothes and a body of water,” Delli-Colli said.

Last year, Delli-Colli had 122 participants across four countries and 22 different cities. And this year, the effort is on pace to beat that.

“And we want to just raise the bar every single year because why not? And we can,” Delli-Colli said.

Delli-Colli moved to the Lake Tahoe region from Nova Scotia.

Two years ago, as the world went on lockdown, and there was a mass shooting in his home province, Delli-Colli said he felt he needed to do something to make a positive difference in the world.

Delli-Colli started with a walk that raised $10,000 for the children of the shooting victims.

“Followed by another major walk, and then followed by the clothing march, and then followed by a major swim. We did a beach clean-up. And we’ve done over 20 events in the last year and a half,” Delli-Colli explained.

For Monday’s jump, several of Delli-Colli’s friends and coworkers from Palisades Tahoe are going in the water with him.”

Delli-Colli said he is motivated to help people who are struggling, whether it’s with mental, physical or material challenges, and he wants to motivate more people to make a difference.

“At the end of the day, it keeps me going too. I look forward to it. And I hope to have as many people as we possibly can join,” Delli-Colli said.

“I love his ambitions and what he stands for. And all of the problems he talked about today are super big,” said event participant Greta Wassersleben.

“It’s nice to get out of our comfort zone and give some people some clothes, which is really awesome. I think there’s a lot of room for growth. It’s little things like this that really wake you up, make you feel good,” said event participant Mikey Verras.

“I genuinely believe that every single person has a brain that’s capable of coming up with ideas that can raise thousands of dollars and plenty of awareness for things that you are passionate about,” Delli-Colli said.

To learn more, visit theconceptproject.org.