var uslide_show_id = “d926dd37-d3e3-4123-9719-0fba28a54797”;var slideshowwidth = “468”;var linktext = “”;Despite rumors of a warm day Saturday February 7th, a new breed of philanthropic penguins in shorts and tank tops still had to jump into Lake Champlain in 30 degree weather, while shivering Winter Festival attendees cheered their support.The Penguin Plunge, one of the main attractions of the annual Burlington Winter Festival, is managed through an organization called firstgiving.org. Hunter Houde is a UVM Salsa and Swing Society member who is both a penguin and a student in the UVM class that is responsible for the Winter Festival. According to Houde, the class at UVM is CDAE 195, a Community Development Applied Economics course on event planning. “It’s a class over winter break for about one week,” Houde said.”We break it up into teams: communications, infrastructure, sponsorship, and human relations,” Houde said. “Between those four teams you assemble all the components to put the event together.”Alexandra Raboy, the spokesperson of CDAE 195 who was in charge of media contacts and radio interviews, spoke about past events. “This Winter Festival is the 17th annual one, and about three years ago Burlington Parks and Rec. lost their funding. They came to UVM to ask for assistance, and this class has been in existence ever since,” Raboy said.Houde had a day full of work with his fellow classmates of CDAE 195, as well as a day of freezing cold fundraising at the edge of Lake Champlain.”Once you sign up [for the plunge] through firstgiving.org, you have to set up a fundraising page” Houde said. “I set a goal of 300 dollars, just enough to make people feel like they should donate more than five dollars.”According to