The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

McGinn dunked for good... cause

Springfield News-Sun columnist Andrew McGinn takes a plunge in a dunking tank for charity outside the Upper Valley Mall on Saturday, July 31. Money raised from the dunking goes to the United Way and Simon Youth Foundation. Staff photo by Bill Lackey

Bill Lackey Springfield News-Sun columnist Andrew McGinn takes a plunge in a dunking tank for charity outside the Upper Valley Mall on Saturday, July 31. Money raised from the dunking goes to the United Way and Simon Youth Foundation. Staff photo by Bill Lackey

ENLARGE PHOTO

Cold, wind to keep roads slick today
Updated 2 min. ago 2/11/12
Safety, job hopes linked to road work
2/10/12
EPA seeks action against mobile home park owner
2/10/12
Hard times continue for homeless mother, two kids
2/10/12
Contractor wanted in theft from elderly
2/10/12
> More headlines

By Valerie Lough, Staff Writer 11:09 PM Saturday, July 31, 2010

There’s something to be said about a man’s reputation when even 10- and 11-year-olds line up to humiliate him.

News-Sun columnist Andrew McGinn took his lumps for charity in a dunking booth at the Upper Valley Mall on Saturday, July 31, and did it only as he could — wearing an Aquaman T-shirt and daring ball-throwers to “bring it on.”

Mall shoppers were invited to pay $2 per shot or $5 for three chances to sink the entertainment writer, the proceeds of which went to United Way and the Simon Youth Foundation.

The star pitcher: Daniel Detrick, the 11-year-old grandson of Clark County Commissioner John Detrick. The kid clobbered McGinn seven times. “It’s like having a hose turned on me, it’s so cold,” McGinn said.

Young Detrick said the experience felt “pretty good.”

“He gets really mad when he falls in,” said Daniel Detrick.

Jacob Woeber, 10, dunked McGinn on his second try — a mall employee slipped him $5 to go twice — because the boy wanted to get him wet. “It was fun to watch him go in ... and try to get back out,” Woeber said.

The event came as organizers at the News-Sun brainstormed about ways to benefit The United Way, said Managing Editor Jim Bebbington.

Someone pitched the idea of putting McGinn in a dunking booth at the Upper Valley Mall, a little payback for an April 30 column in which the columnist took some jabs at the shopping center.

“It started out as a joke,” Bebbington said. “Then we called the mall and they said, ‘We’d love that.’”

A few handfuls of shoppers, current and former News-Sun staffers and mall employees turned out for the event. Even Mrs. McGinn made an appearance.

She bought six shots, dunking Andy with one.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0360 or vlough@coxohio.com.

Share this article