Frozen Tongue Challenge raises nearly $18K for Watrous fire department

The man who came up with a unique fundraising challenge for the Watrous volunteer fire department has ended up with his tongue stuck to a pole.

“It just feels like it was burnt with hot coffee or chocolate or something,” Jeff Siegfried told The Brent Loucks Show Tuesday morning following his ordeal Monday night.

Siegfried, sales manager at the Watrous Mainline GM auto dealership, devised a plan to help the local fire department raise money for a new water truck.

He issued a challenge on Jan. 22 to Watrous deputy fire chief Andrew Matheson; they’d each try and collect as many donations as they could until Feb. 25 and the man who brought in the lowest total would have to stick his tongue to a large metal light standard located outside the dealership building.

The contest saw both men repeatedly shatter fundraising goals set over the course of the month. But there could only be one winner when the fateful day rolled around on Monday.

The final tallies ended up with Siegfried at $8,668.90 and Matheson winning the challenge with $9110.71.

True to his word, Siegfried put his tongue on the line for all to see.

“I got up there and my tongue froze rather quickly, faster than I thought. Within a second we had good adhesion,” he said.

Siegfried got un-stuck using warm water from a thermos.