By JOEL STOTTRUP
Princeton Union-Eagle

Seven Cub Scouts and four adults with Princeton Cub Scout Pack 116 began the early hours of 2009 plunging into icy cold lake water.

The 11 were doing it to help their Assistant Cub Master Darwin “Dar” Durant, who was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer.

The cancer has affected his lungs and one hip. He is expecting to begin chemotherapy soon.

Durant has been involved in Boy Scouts since 1973 and attained the Eagle rank.

Durant stood on the ice of Lake Minnetonka, at about 9:35 a.m. Jan. 1, as the Cub Scouts and four adults took part in the 19th annual Lake Minnetonka Ice Plunge. It is put on each New Year’s Day by the Active Life and Running Club.

The plungers usually take their turn in the plunge based on how many years they have participated in it. The ones who have done it 10 or more times are called the sharks. They go first, along with the organizers of the annual plunge.

They are usually followed by the Barracudas, the Muskies, the Northerns on down to the first timers called Guppies.

The organizers this year were so inspired by the Cub Scout pack that the group got to plunge sooner. Instead of waiting until the end, explained Pack 116 secretary Rechelle Donais, the pack was allowed to plunge after the Sharks and the organizers.

Those who plunged

“Very, very cold,” is how Christian Donais, 9, described the plunge when he was asked.

Christian’s mother Rechelle said that it was pretty much the same reaction for most who were asked from among the Pack 116 plungers.

It’s hard to describe it in any other words,” Rechelle said. While plunging into icy cold water could be a shock, Rechelle said,  the kids, at least, might not say “shock” because they think of that as having to do with electricity.

The other Pack 116 Cub Scouts who took the plunge were Riley Broding, Tyler Tilton, LeRoy Smith Jr., Nicholas Swanz, Jade Rolfe and  Durant’s son Jesse.

The adults, with Pack 116, who plunged were Cub Master Scott Tilton, den leaders Lawrence Swan, Rechelle’s husband Jess Donais, and plunge project committee chair Patrice Broding.

Other jumpers with the group were LeRoy Smith, father of young LeRoy, and Lacee Broding, daughter of Patrice Broding.

Fun was original reason for the Princeton plungers

Rechelle Donais said that kids and adults from Pack 116 originally talked about doing the annual ice plunge just for fun.

But then Jess said that if anyone was “going to do something that crazy, it should be for a good cause, Rechelle noted.”

From there, the idea developed to raise pledge money to help offset expenses the Durant family was incurring due to the cancer diagnosis. The extra money could help relieve the stress the Durants are going through, Rechelle said.

Durant is on a leave from his work as a parts burnisher at Metal Craft Machine & Engineering in Elk River.

The amount raised through the pledges was not known in time for this story. Rechelle explained that it was still being tallied.

Even after deciding to make the  plunge a fund-raiser, Pack 116 had originally not wanted it to be known publicly what it was up to, Rechelle noted.

But when Pack 116 went to fill out application forms to be accepted for the plunge, organizers asked why Cub Scouts were doing this and the word got out. The organizers were impressed and soon the media took hold of it, Rechelle said.

Jumping in uniform

When the  Pack 116 plunge participants said they wanted to jump with their Scout uniforms on, the organizers were not wild about that. The reason, Rechelle said, is that having a wet shirt on causes the body to be colder. But organizers consented to the Scout shirts being on because of the image Pack 116 was trying to create for the Durant fund-raiser.

But the plungers all had to wear lace-up shoes and no stockings, Rechelle noted. Experience showed that if a participant had no footwear or wore loose fitting footwear that fell off, the bare feet would stick to the ice, Rechelle said.

Two of the Pack 116 Cub Scouts did cry from the cold of the plunge, she noted. She reported LeRoy Smith Jr. saying the plunge was “awesome,” and his father saying, “Never again.”

“My son said it was pretty good and my husband said it was great,” Rechelle continued. “For him [her husband] to say that, is quite a feat because he hyperventilates in a cold shower.”

Cub Scouts Riley and Jesse said after the plunge that they hadn’t expected it to hurt like it did, Rechelle reported.

Organizers had a crew  assisting the plungers in getting out of the water and getting the Cub Scout pack participants’ wet shirts off and a towel wrapped around them.

A heated grill was nearby for instant heat, and there was the Bayside Event Center to run into after the plunge.

The $20 per person plunge fee included an all-you-can-eat buffet at the center.

Plunge participants had to sign a liability waiver, Rechelle noted, and all were warned of the potential problems when jumping into such cold water. She noted that the event had a paramedic and firefighter rescue crew present.

Effect on Durant

“Dar was very emotional,” Rechelle said, describing Durant as he watched his Pack 116 group take the plunge.

Durant, reached at his home last Friday, said he was initially a “little upset” at the idea of anyone doing the plunge to raise money for him.

The reason, he said, is because he knows “there are other people out there who are in tough shape.”

But once it was explained what the Cub Scouts were trying to do, he said, he understood and thought it was “pretty darn cool.”

It was a “phenomenal day,” Durant said of Jan. 1.  “All the people, strangers coming up to me and saying, ‘Dig in there, you’re going to be OK.’

 “They weren’t as proud of the Cub Scouts as I was, but they were proud of them. They did good.”

Durant said he has gained a “different outlook” because of what he witnessed at the event.

“There are a lot of good  people, kids and adults,” he explained. “They just don’t get on TV.”

An account has been set up at People’s Bank of Commerce in Princeton for anyone to donate for the benefit of the Durant family. The account is listed as the Dar Durant Cancer Fund.