State Sen. Donald Humason Jr. waves to the crowd during Saturday’s Penguin Plunge at Hampton Ponds. Humason has participated in every Penguin Plunge fundraiser since it’s inception 10-years ago. Proceeds of the event will benefit the Amelia Park Children’s Museum. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Speakers blared Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” and Van Halen’s “Jump” over the ice of Westfield’s Hampton Ponds Saturday, commemorating the tenth annual Penguin Plunge.
What began as a small gathering of about 50 brave and crazy souls on Southwick’s Congamond Lakes has emerged into a much larger fundraising event for the Amelia Park Children’s Museum, and Saturday’s event was the biggest plunge yet, hauling in around $25,000 to benefit the Museum.
State Senator Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield) was awarded a golden plunger award as recognition for a decade of participation prior to following Tricia Knapik, wife of Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, into a large hole which had been cut into the pond and made all the colder by the afternoon air, registering around 31 degrees at plunge time.
“I think I’m the only one who has plunged every year, and I can remember almost every plunge crystal clear,” Humason said. “(Congamond) was nice but crowded, so then we went to the swimming pool on the Green and now Hampton Ponds.”
Humason recalled the Green being among the coldest plunges, but said he also remembered a year when the air was about 40 degrees.
Hundreds of participants came out for the largest turnout in the event’s history, from adults to small children, with local businesses and community members alike sponsoring the aquatic lunacy.
“I don’t know how many, but I have heard that the online registration was unbelievable. It has grown tremendously,” said Mayor Knapik.
Though he himself has never plunged, Knapik said that he was part of the original planners for the event and thanked everyone responsible for it’s continued success, especially the city’s Fire and Police Departments.
“Without the Fire Department especially, and the Police Department, this would be a hard thing to pull off,” he said.
Knapik’s wife was participating in the event for the second time, but many participants were first-timers on Saturday.
“It was our first time and honestly, it was on a whim,” said Shane Burke, 25 of Granby, who wore swim trunks adorned with the American Flag and teamed up with a fellow member of the 304th Transportation Company and the 407th Transportation Battalion as the “All-American Dudes.”
“We just decided to do it three days ago,” said Burke, who returned from Iraq in 2011. “We raised $180 in about two days. We just wanted to raise some money for something good.”
“I’m crazy,” said Sarah Holub, a first-time plunger, jokingly, when asked why she was plunging. “Anybody who knows me knows I’d do it.”
Holub, who raised $500 as a member of Team Home Depot, said she would like to do it again next year, the same response many participants gave on Saturday.
