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Mar. 16—In the moments before they ran across the beach at Blue Marsh Lake Saturday morning, father and daughter Mike and Rachel Roberts tried to mentally prepare.

"I was just thinking how cold is it going to be?" Rachel said of her impending plunge into the frigid water.

Her dad, on the other hand, had more technical concerns. He was worried about the small fans inside the costumes he and his daughter were wearing — his an inflatable leprechaun and hers an inflatable dinosaur — and how they would hold up submerged in the lake.

"I was worried about short circuiting because of the motor," he said, explaining that they used plastic bags to help protect the electronics.

So why, given their worries, did Mike and Rachel decide to jump in the lake. Why did they spend their morning splashing, fully costumed, in near-freezing water?

They did it for fun, and to help out a local organization.

Marsh Madness is an annual fundraising event benefiting the YMCA of Reading and Berks County. A total of 80 people took the plunge Saturday, raising over $50,000 for the organization.

"The purpose of this event is to get to know your community, the camaraderie," Chrissy Faller, YMCA spokesperson said. "But also to help other people in your community."

Faller said the event brings in a lot of much-needed funding that will provide local kids with opportunities they might not otherwise have. It helps cover the costs of things like summer camps and sports programs.

"It's a very fun day," she said of the day. "But it's also very meaningful to the futures of a lot of kids."

Andrew Arway, of Blandon, is a member of the Willow Creek YMCA. He said he was glad to be able to take part in an event that was both beneficial to the organization, as well as fun.

He and his buddy, Todd Oxenreider, donned green and black kilts to take the plunge Saturday. It was the first time each of them had taken part in the event.

"It's a shock to the system, there's no doubt," Oxenreider, of Reading, said. "It's exhilierating"

Arway agreed that when he first hit the water it quite a shock, but he said he quickly got acclimated to the frigid temperature.

"Once you get your head under the water it's fine," he said. "It gets your adrenaline going. Once you get out you kind of want to go back in."

There was a wide age range for those taking part in Saturday's plunge. Some were adults, others were teenagers.

But the youngest participant — who earned a trophy for taking part that she refused to let out of her hands — was six-year-old Kate Doutrich.

"It was fun," she said. "I liked the swimming."

Kate said she was a little bit scared to jump into the lake, worried about how it would feel. It turned out, it was exactly what she was expecting — cold.

"I didn't know how cold it was going to be in the lake," she said. "It was really cold."