Make-A-Wish Illinois hosted its annual Polar Plunge Winter Festival on Saturday afternoon at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa.

One hundred and eighty people from 15 groups participated in the Penguin Plunge to show support for Make-A-Wish Illinois, which is celebrating its 40th year of creating life-changing wishes for Illinois children with critical illnesses.

Participants arrived two hours before the plunge to enjoy food, beverages, music and activities.

While many jumped into the icy water, others attended to voice their support for Make-A-Wish Illinois.

The groups at the event included Vactor, Team Francisco, Atom Splitters, Atomic Penguins, Bears Den, Chill Seekers, Delta Theta Tau Zeta Upsilon, Leasure Time, Parker’s Penguins, Ryder Strong, Simon’s Squad, Triton Services, Valentinos, Wishes and Warriors, and Wishmakers.

Team Francisco, Leasure Time, Parker’s Penguins, Ryder Strong and Simon’s Squad are groups made up of Make-A-Wish families.

When people first started jumping into the water, it was 26 degrees with a real-feel temperature of 8 degrees.

Dillon Leasure has been participating in the Penguin Plunge for a decade now. Since being a Make-A-Wish child himself, Leasure has stayed active in the mission to grant wishes to more children who are experiencing what he went through as a child.

Now a teacher in the area, Leasure gives back by participating with his family and others in a large group, Leasure Time.

“This is not the coldest it’s ever been,” he said. “A couple of years ago, it was way colder. It was snowing and just frigid. One year, they had to reschedule it twice because the temperature was so low,” he said.

One of the youngest plungers was Faith, a 9-year-old girl from the Atomic Penguins group, who was participating for the first time.

“I decided on my way here to run in,” she said.

Faith shrugged when asked if she was surprised at how cold the water was, but said, “I’d probably do it again.”

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without our volunteers and sponsors,” Make-A-Wish Illinois Senior Communications Manager Jessica Miller said.

Miller hopes that the event can continue to raise awareness about Make-A-Wish Illinois and its mission.

“People don’t realize that wishes are being granted in their community all the time,” she said.

The Penguin Plunge has been helping grant wishes for the children of Make-A-Wish Illinois since 2011.

Linda Johnson started the polar plunge along with Sammy Berry.

“We wanted to raise awareness for what Make-A-Wish Illinois does and we just had the idea to do something like this,” she said.

The plunge used to be held in Heritage Harbor in Ottawa before moving to Skydive Chicago in recent years.

Make-A-Wish Illinois has already helped 19 kids this year in La Salle County and the surrounding area.

“Events like these drive revenue, that’s obviously important, but it’s the community engagement that sets them apart,” Make-A-Wish Illinois CEO Stephanie Springs said. “We’re going to grant wishes, that’s a given, but when you have the support and participation of the community, that’s really special.”

Make-A-Wish Illinois has raised more than $95,000 from the event and they are continuing to accept donations through Feb 28.

Donations continued on Saturday night at Keegan’s Irish Pub, which hosted the unofficial afterparty of the Polar Plunge Winter Festival, and donated 5% of their sales to the cause.

To learn about Make-A-Wish Illinois and its mission, go to wish.org/Illinois. To get involved, go to wish.org/Illinois/volunteer.