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Standing in the packed main dining room of Tim McLoone’s Supper Club, where plunge participants usually gather before ultimately disrobing on the beach in the frigid January air to then hop into the Atlantic in the name of charity, former Asbury Park Rotary Club president Jeffery Bassett jokingly told first time plungers they were getting off easy this year.

“We’ve plunged in single degree temperatures,” he said. “we considered cancelling the plunge this year because it was too warm.”

The Rotary Club of Asbury Park held their Sixth Annual Polar Plunge on the Sixth Avenue beach Saturday morning. Normally, the plunge takes place on the Fifth Avenue beach right in front of McLoone’s, but work on a beach replenishment project at the Fifth Ave location sent the group a block north.

Over 120 people raised more than $10,000 for The Mya Lin Terry Foundation and Rotary Eye Rescue for the event, which has become one of the service group’s flagship fundraisers since Bassett came up with the idea to plunge for charity six years ago.

According to Bassett, The Mya Lin Foundation was the perfect charitable organization to partner with for this year’s plunge.

The foundation is named in honor of 10-year old Mya Lin Terry, an Oakhurst resident who succumbed to a 5 and a half year battle with cancer in April of last year. Her eponymous foundation seeks to enrich the lives of pediatric cancer patients, create awareness, identify causes of pediatric cancer, support new treatment options, help eliminate national drug shortages that affect pediatric cancer patients and to foster the spirit of giving, according to Kelly Lin Terry, Mya’s mother.

“It was her fierce determination to battle cancer, enjoy life to the fullest, and to always help others that created the mission of her foundation,” Terry said to the crowd in McLoone’s.

Monmouth County holds the third highest average for incidents of pediatric cancer in the state, which falls above the national average, Terry said. Other groups like The Frances Foundation fir Kids Fighting Cancer came out in strong numbers in support of Mya Lin and other children who also battle pediatric cancers.

“It’s invigorating,” said Bob Heugle, founder and executive director of The Frances Foundation, as he toweled off after taking his second polar plunge with the Rotary Club.

“The idea of being able to come along and stand alongside families of kids who have cancer falls perfectly in line with our mission,” Bassett said. “It is why we are Rotarians.”

His reason for coming up with the idea to host a plunge? Taking a dip in the chilly waters of the Atlantic in mid-January was on his bucket list, he said.

Bassett can now cross the item off his list six times over. It is an honor the Asbury Park Rotary Club refers to as as “the perfect plungers,” according to event chair Traudy Grande.

Grande is a part of the perfect plunger’s club herself, and has watched the event grow in numbers each year. This year the club achieved their highest numbers of online registrants, she said.

“Six years ago we had about 25 people … this year we had over 100,” Grande said. “It’s been our most successful plunge so far.”

For former Interlaken Mayor Hunt A. Parry, a long-standing member of the Rotary Club, the polar plunge is a great event, just not one he elects to participate in.

“It’s cold,” he said. “I grew up here and I don’t go in the water until after the Fourth of July.”

Parry’s reasoning is the exact opposite of first time plunger Alyson Siniscalco’s.

“I’m an ocean girl, I grew up on the shore, in the water” she said. “It’s exhilarating — I’d do it again.”

[Click here to see more photos from the Polar Plunge.]

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