Scott had wanted to plunge into a lake in the winter for about 50 years, and on Saturday he did.

"Very refreshing," reported the Shanks' Mare Outfitters employee from behind a firmly clasped towel.

"It took my breath away."

Multiply his feat by 1,200 to 1,300 people and you get the fourth annual Freezin' for a Reason Polar Bear Plunge, held Saturday at Lake Clarke in Wrightsville to benefit Special Olympics York County.

You get roller coaster screams and a weird midwinter blast of beach fashion.

You get thrills and maybe chills. It depended on who was taking the plunge.

"Yeah, it's cold," said Kyle Hower, a York police officer who had gone shirtless to impersonate a lobster.

His finny red getup won the costume contest but lacked insulation.

"After a while you go sort of numb," said Hower, who hadn't even tested the water yet.

Teacher Martin Rodriguez had  dipped –– with about 40 other teachers and students from York County schools. He described it as "nice and balmy."

"When you're in a big group you don't even notice it." Added Rodriguez: "I'm willing to do anything stupid to help out."

River rats
Help out, they do.

The Wrightsville plunge is one of five such Special Olympics events statewide, said the group's Pennsylvania chairman, Tony Gillespie.

"It's a new phenomenon. We saw the success other states have had with plunges."

Donations trickle in for months afterwards, said Carrie Smeltzer, one of the coordinators in Wrightsville.

The weekend immersion could net up to $80,000 for sports programs serving about 300 Special Olympics athletes in York County, Smeltzer said.

Last year's event, held despite rain and snow, attracted 1,037 people and raised $64,000.

"It was just an idea over a cup of coffee," Smeltzer said. It's spiraled into this huge event."

Never underestimate the public's willingness to dunk itself in frigid bodies of water.

For a good cause, that is.

Six times more Freezin' fans came out in 2012 than in 2009.

People congregated Saturday on the DONSCO Inc. property on North Front Street. They listened to music provided by WSOX 96.1 FM before walking in successive "waves" down a narrow boat ramp into the Susquehanna River.

Among those in the throng were Kelly Wilson and Joe Fittipaldi, of Argires, Becker & Westphal physical therapy group in Lancaster.

Twenty-two people in the office set out to collect $2,000, Fittipaldi said. "I think we should surpass that" –– thanks in part to $250 from Baltimore Orioles pitcher Zach Britton.

Wilson loves the Orioles. She bet Fittipaldi, who described himself as a New York Yankee fan "from birth," that she could score a donation from her team, and she did.

"I didn't think it was even possible to get a major league baseball player to sponsor our team," Fittipaldi said.

For his penance, he donned orange and white tights and a Britton T-shirt.

"This is killing me," he joked before going into the river.

"It makes Orioles fans happy," Wilson said.

"All three of you," Fittipaldi retorted.

In reality, he added, "I'll never be an Orioles fan but I'll always be a Zach Britton fan."

He drank hot coffee to thaw his nerves.

Not far away, Aimee Alex, a Marietta resident who was captaining the "License to Chill" fundraising team,  also sipped coffee.

She and her teammates were wearing Chesapeake crab hats with "eyes" sticking up on stalks and, under their cold weather gear, swimsuits and Hawaiian shirts.

"We're doing a tropical theme," Alex said. "Wishful thinking. Think warm, you'll be warm."

Alex noted that she was trying for a personal record.

"This year I committed to going in a little deeper" than the waist, she said. "We'll see how that works out."

Lancaster resident Kris McCamant said he'd been monitoring the Susquehanna River water temperature all week. It had been dropping, he said.

It was 34 degrees at plunge time.

Dull clouds hid the sun, and the air temperature hovered in the 40s. The waters just north of the Wrightsville bridge were calm.

But rescue workers wearing  drysuits and yellow helmets had waded waist-deep into the river and fanned out to form a protective human polar bear corral.

"The current's kind of strong," said Bob Odenwalt, chief of Lake Clarke Rescue in Wrightsville. "We don't want anyone to float away."

At 11:57 a.m., three minutes early, a small contingent of Marines kicked off the plunge by marching straight into the drink with (mostly) passive faces.

Hundreds of onlookers cheered from the sides of the boat ramp, which had been swept clean with leaf blowers.

Sixteen waves of "polar bears" followed at intervals.

Each group got three minutes in the water. And then they got out.

Most people headed quickly for a changes-of-clothes, but not necessarily all.

When the plunge is done, Joe Fittipaldi had said earlier, "I like to run around and give dry people a hug."

Contact Sunday News staff writer Jon Rutter at jrutter@lnpnews.com.