Jumping into Chilly Lake Geneva for a Good Cause

You might think it would be hard to convince someone to jump in the waters of Lake Geneva in the middle of December - much less pay for it.

That said, there were no arguments to doing the task at this year’s Freeze 4 Life event which raises money for college scholarships and pancreatic cancer research.

About a hundred people hitched rides off Pier 290 to waterski, tube, and do other aquatic sports. The temperature for the day was in the high-forties.

"It's not really freeze for life this year. It's kind of chilly for life this year,” Bill Gage – an event co-coordinator - said.

"It's all in the eye of the beholder,” Dalton Waldreck responded. “Whoever jumps in the water they'll give you that answer quick enough."

"I started this event in 2008 in memory of my father who passed away of pancreatic cancer. The event kind of embodies everything that my dad loved,” Waldreck said of his father, Kevin Waldreck.

"He loved the water. He loved the challenges that life threw at him especially the way he handled his diagnosis. So we found that this event was crazy enough that you'd get people out in good spirit for a good cause,” Waldreck said.

"We both lost our fathers to cancer and in a small community like this it's really fun to give back and find a way to try to enrich peoples lives,” Gage said.

This year they hope to raise $25,000 and the warmer weather might actually help them reach the goal – typically it’s harder to get people out to an event if it’s too cold.

"We've had it so cold before where it's been 10 degrees, the pier's frozen up. The dry suits, the hair, everything's been turned to ice. Today we've been blessed with good weather,” Waldreck said.