Local Residents Make Waves at Penguin Plunge [GALLERY]

When an announcer at the Sunday, March 11, Penguin Plunge told everyone the temperature of the lake, cheers erupted from the crowd.

As of 11:42 p.m. Sunday, the temperature of Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury was a whopping 64 degrees.

The Penguin Plungers may have cheered then, but once they took a dip in the lake, those cheers turned to shouts of "It's so cold" or "What the heck?" from one of the youngest participants who took the plunge.

More than $59,000 was raised during this year's Penguin Plunge for Special Olympics of Connecticut. The event took place at .

Sam Mason was dubbed the Emperor Penguin and was the first person to take the plunge. Mason's goal was to raise $2,000 for the Special Olympics. Instead, he beat his goal and raised the highest amount raised by one person, at $2,523.80.

According to Mason's fundraising page on the Special Olympics of Connecticut website, this year's Penguin Plunge is his fourth time jumping into Lake Quassy.

Oxford Special Olympics raised more than $4,000 this year.

The costumes were colorful at the Penguin Plunge, from the Spillane family of Watertown who dressed as The Addams Family to nurses dressed in scrubs and men and women dressed in grass skirts.

Did you participate in the Penguin Plunge? Tell us how much you raised in the comments section and add your photos to the gallery.