Cameron Jennerjohn, 19, had good cause to jump into the frigid 40-degree Atlantic Ocean at Hampton Beach.

Jennerjohn was part of the seven-member Plungeritas team from Bedford in the eighth annual New Hampshire Special Olympics Penguin Plunge on Sunday, Feb. 4.

Jennerjohn’s sister, Courtney, is part of the Bedford Bobcats team for which the Plungeritas raised about $6,000 in pledges. Bedford resident Bill Jones raised another $8,400 for the team. The 775 plungers at the Feb. 4 event raised $505,000 for New Hampshire Special Olympics.

“It was pretty nice. It was definitely better than I thought it was going to be,” Jennerjohn said after his first Penguin Plunge Sunday. His parents faced the cold waters last year, and Jennerjohn will probably plunge again next year.

This was Rachel Cohen’s second year on the Plungeritas team. Cohen, 25, a special education teacher at McKelvie Middle School, looked forward to the experience.

“This year, it’s colder airtemperature wise, but it seems it won’t be as bad in the water,” she said before the plunge.

Many of the pledges Cohen received came with the caveat that she had to dip her head fully underwater.

“What’s funny is that this is the only time of the year that I go in the ocean. I’m afraid of the ocean,” she said.

The money raised will help pay for new uniforms for the Bobcats team and travel costs for members and families. Some of the money might also go toward an expansion into a field hockey team, said Jones.

Jones, who has a son with special needs, has plunged all eight years the event has taken place.

Known as “Captain Plunger,” Jones wears a baseball helmet topped with toilet plungers.

This year, he was clad in a red union suit with plastic buttocks sticking out of the back.

When the plastic buttocks fell off in the water, he joked that the cold temperature would freeze your “blank” off.

“It wasn’t the coldest year, but it was cold,” he said. “In past years, we’ve had wind chills below zero and we’ve had sleet.”

The sunny weather this year was better for plungers and much better for spectators, he said.

Peter Woodbury School Principal Ken Williams joked about the sunshine before he and Assistant Superintendent Chip McGee took the plunge.

“We’re here. It’s a balmy, sunny day at Hampton Beach,” Williams said while he stood waiting with the first wave of plungers to go in.

Williams and McGee raised about $1,200 for the Artful Dodgers team. It was Williams seventh year taking the plunge.

This year, everyone who has plunged for the last five years received a pen with a penguin on it at an award ceremony.

“I’m going to hang in there for 10 years and see what they give me,” Jones joked.

Sgt. Rob Gagliardi represented Bedford police in the plunge.

For his second year plunging he raised $315. The water, he joked, was just as cold this year as it was last year.