Julie Templin stood shivering with her arms crossed on an Effingham beach Saturday wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt, shorts and flip-flops. Yellow feathers were attached to her collar and on the bottom of her sweatshirt to make a tail.

Templin, a junior special elementary education major, looked at the 40-degree water with two friends in matching outfits with orange inner tubes around their necks.

Templin’s mother Debbie, who made the duck costumes, was also wearing one.

“I’m the momma duck,” she said, holding a mesh bag of rubber ducks.

It was Julie’s idea to dress up like ducks, Debbie said, because ducks love water.

But it was more than just love of water that made this group of ducks swim on Saturday.

Sixty-eight people sprinted into Effingham’s frigid Lake Sara to raise money for the local Special Olympics. The Polar Plunge raised $13,636.

Heather Janik, a junior special education major, raised $1,501.

Janik hadn’t thought much about how to prepare for the cold water.

“The plan is to run in and out as fast as we can,” she said.

For safety reasons, participants were divided into groups of approximately 10.

First-time plunger Moni Sheehan was in the first group of people. Shivering, she wore a formfitting black tank top and pants, swimming cap with multicolored spikes protruding from it, a snorkel and clear arm floaties. She wanted to plunge for her son, who is a Special Olympian.

Also in the first group was Kelli Janssen, a junior early childhood education major. Standing on the beach, nearly 10 people grabbed hands and ran into the water, screaming, until the water was waist deep.

Janssen was the first one out of the water and kept sprinting past the beach onto the grass.

Her first thought after hitting the water was regret, but she’ll definitely be back next year, she said.

More than 200 people came to watch the event. As one group took off running, a woman took nearly six strides before taking a belly flop into the water and splashing around. The audiences’ gloved hands provided muffled applause.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said 65-year-old Melvin Utsler.

Utsler drove a charter bus of Eastern students from Greek Court to the event.

Becky Morris, manager of CarQuest in Charleston, was not looking forward to the cold water.

“I’m gonna be 50, and I’m gonna die,” Morris said. She was telling herself to imagine the waters of Jamaica, while standing on the beach with a towel around her shoulders, shivering, waiting her turn.

Participants were dressed to compete in the costume contest that included a fairy, men in grass skirts and a University of Illinois fan wearing a wig and body and face paint.

The group of ducks won the contest, and each winner received two tickets to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.

The Effingham County Dive-Rescue Team had two members in wetsuits in the water in case of emergency.

People do not realize they lose their body heat 25 times faster in water than on land, said Terry Trueblood, commander of the team.

“From the health point of view, it’s probably not a good idea,” he said. But a healthy person will be just fine since people are only in the water for a few minutes, he said

The Dive-Rescue Team has supervised the event for many years as their donation to the program.

“It’s idiots running into water,” he said with a laugh.

There were no safety problems Saturday.

“Everything was perfect,” Trueblood said. “And you can’t beat that with a stick!”

Kimberly Abell, the local Area Nine Special Olympics director, said she was extremely happy with how things went.