A cold, windy February morning marked the seventh annual Polar Plunge at Lake Raleigh on Centennial Campus.

Participants dressed up in funky and fancy costumes to take a plunge in the chilly water Saturday morning. Organizers also hosted a 5k challenge to assist with the fundraising efforts.

The big crowd included “plunging” teams and an audience who came to witness the craze of another N.C. State tradition.

Police Lieutenant David Kelly explained the reason behind the fundraiser.

“We are doing the polar plunge for the North Carolina Special Olympics. Every year they have a huge fundraiser event throughout the state, and all the law enforcement agencies get together and have all this fundraiser stuff to raise money for North Carolina Special Olympics,” Kelly said.

He said the event was successful, as there were about 1,000 runners for the 5k challenge and 44 teams for the Polar Plunge.

“It was a great event today. It has grown every year and we have had more and more participants,” Kelly said.

Kelly said the event brought its largest crowd this year.

 ”I think we’ve had close to about 800 to about a thousand runners in the 5k run. We had about 43 to 44 teams that actually took a plunge into Lake Raleigh today, so it was a very good event,” Kelly said.

Kelly said that the event raised $29,000 to $30,000 and that proceeds will go towards the Special Olympics

The money was raised through sponsors giving money to groups jumping into the lake, some of the money was raised through the 5k run, and other money was raised through individual donations either to a person or a team that jumped in the lake.

Kelly was happy with the efforts of the University in raising money, and hoped for a bigger event next year.

“We are just very glad that North Carolina State University could raise money for the North Carolina Special Olympics, and we look forward to having a bigger and better event next year,” Kelly said.

The N.C. State Student Government Team, comprising Andy Walsh, Brian Krystek, Josh Privette and Chandler Thompson, also took a plunge to join the tradition.

Student body president Chandler Thompson said she thought it wasn’t a good idea to sign up for the plunge, but she didn’t see what was coming.

“I was thinking that it was a crazy idea to sign up for this. It is really cold outside and the wind wasn’t helping,” Thompson said, “I was definitely freezing, and didn’t know what to expect when it was time to run into the