The weather may have been even too cold for some polar bears Saturday at the 14th annual Polar Bear Plunge at Sandy Point State Park.

The event, founded and sponsored by the Maryland State Police, is intended to raise money for the Maryland Special Olympics. The plunge is the state's most successful single-day, fund-raising event and has been called the largest Polar Bear Plunge in the world.

The numbers have grown so much over the last three years that organizers have had to schedule two plunges and set up satellite parking areas and supply shuttle buses to get participants to the event. In 2007 there were an estimated...