By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — One company that is in the business of keeping people warm has four employees doing the exact opposite for themselves.

Four (4) people have volunteered to jump into Highland Lake in the middle of winter.

A team of four has registered to raise money for Harvest Hills Animal Shelter by jumping into the frigid lake water for the first time ever.

Brand new to the shelter’s major fundraiser—  Freezing for a Reason  — the employees from White Mountain Propane are really excited about the upcoming jump on Feb. 17.

“When I am talking on the phone to them, I can hear the enthusiasm in their voice. They have never done it before. They have never jumped in Highland Lake. Some of them have never even been to Bridgton; the business is in New Hampshire. They have been having jump-team meetings. They are really enthusiastic,” according to HHAS Executive Director Joan McBurnie.

“We have some new sponsors this year. We have the old ones. We appreciated their commitment. It is really exciting to have some new sponsors, too,” she said.

Paul Whalen, sales and marketing department, spoke for the White Mountain team. 

“We put a team together of four folks here. They’re going to jump in really cold water one week from Saturday. It’s for a great cause. They say they really excited about it,” Whalen said.

 White Mountain is also among those businesses and individuals to register early for the event taking place next weekend.

Online registration has started and about 30 individuals are signed up, McBurnie said.

“We are pushing preregistration,” she said.

She stressed that the time it takes for people fill out registration paperwork and sign waivers on jump day is causing the actual jump to start late.

“Last year, it was bad. We had people in line at one-quarter of 1 p.m. It pushed the jump time back. We are pushing preregistration. We are trying to make it easier for everyone,” McBurnie said.

“Go to the website. Get the waiver signed that you are jumping in icy water,” she said.

Last year, we had almost 100 jumpers and more than half registered between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and it was chaotic. It is cold. People don’t understood that it’s cold, signing paperwork take more time. 

“If you think about it, if you have 100 people passing in money, that is one thing. But, if you have 100 people counting and passing in money and filling out registration information and signing waivers — it’s too much office work. We are trying to avoid office work on jump day as much as possible,” she said.

The website address is harvesthills.org.  At the top of the home page, it says, ‘Annual Fundraisers’. Freezing For a Reason 2024 is listed under that listing. Registration and waiver forms can be completed online. Pledge sheets can be printed out.

One young jumper, 9-year-old Oliver, is no stranger to the shelter fundraisers, McBurnie said

“Oliver who did our sleepover and raised a ton of money around Christmas, is doing the jump this year. He raised over $40,000 over Christmas,” she said. “Freezing used to be the biggest fundraiser. Oliver is kicking my butt with his sleepover. He and I joke about it. I tell him the only way to come close to his numbers is the fact he is jumping, he’ll raise a lot of money for the shelter.”

For the jumpers, getting warm after going into the lake is important. A heated tent will remedy that.

“The heated haz mat tent is back,” McBurnie said.

There will not be any hot tubs — a luxury of the past. But, then the average temperature on the day of the jump is warmer since the event was moved to February.

“I am so grateful that it got moved from January to February. The weather has been so much better in February than the cold winter weather in January. People forget the jump used to be in January,” she said. “This weekend, is going to be 40 degrees. Can you imagine if next weekend was that warm?”

One could only hope.

“It’s important to recognize the effort of the Bridgton Fire Department and the town’s Public Works crew,” she said.