PLEASANT POINT – It didn’t matter that the air temperature was more than 30 degrees warmer than last year, the water felt colder and the force of the wind was enough to chill you through and through.

Despite the brisk February air, three other Bangor Daily News employees and I braved the frigid ocean water, along with about 125 other people, to participate in Friday’s sixth annual Polar Bear Dip. The event is held each year to raise money for Bangor’s Ronald McDonald House, which provides support and shelter to families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at nearby hospitals.

A first count showed that dippers had brought in $14,000 in pledges, but more money is expected.

“Usually more money floods in over the next couple of days,” said Darin McGaw, Washington County Community College student senate adviser. The student senate sponsors the event.

I wasn’t the only one who thought this year’s dip in Passamaquoddy Bay felt much colder than the last time around.

“It was harder because the air was damper,” Amy Hodgdon, 42 and an employee at Down East Hospice, said after she dried off and changed clothes.

The air temperature was 36 degrees Fahrenheit, and although the National Weather Service reported that the ocean water temperature was 38 degrees, it felt much colder.

As Barnett stood bundled in a winter coat with her hood pulled over her damp hair, she said this was her second year participating in the event.

“I came back because it’s a good cause,” she said. “Many of our Down East Hospice clients and families have used the Ronald McDonald House.”

Barnett added that although Polar Dips are held throughout the state for a variety of causes, the Pleasant Point event is one of a kind because of the community that supports it.

“They have so little to give, yet they give all they can,” Barnett said. She raised almost $1,000 this year to benefit the organization.

Gary Moore, who has become the star of the event by diving off the railing of the pier each year to start the dip, said he agrees. Moore, who takes a voluntary winter swim in the bay about three times a year in addition to the dip, said he started participating in the event because it was “right up [his] alley.”

“As I started collecting the fundraising, it got more personal because you hear the stories about people using the Ronald McDonald House,” Moore said. “It isn’t because I’m foolish now, it’s because it’s gotten more personal.”

Moore goes door to door each year collecting donations, and said that even families who have had a rough year continue to give.

“This year is my best year,” he said. Moore topped the $1,500 in pledges he collected last year by raising $2,055 this year.

Not all those who participated in Friday’s event are veteran dippers. Five students from Kennebec Valley Community College in Augusta came to dip for the first time.

“It’s a great cause and it’s a great way to really support the school,” Tammy Weddington, 40, student senate president at KVCC, said before running into the frigid waters.

As Weddington made her way to her vehicle after the dip, she made it a point to assure me that she’d be back next year.

In addition to KVCC, students from Northern and Eastern Maine community colleges, as well as some from the University of Maine, came to support the Washington County Community College student senate, which sponsors the event each year.

“It’s one of the most stellar events of our college,” WCCC President Bill Cassidy said. “This is also educating them in stewardship [and] giving something back to the community. This is what it’s really about.”