You may have seen a million or few videos just like this one popping up around the Internet and social media lately, accompanied by #ALSicebucketchallenge. Contrary to popular belief, this trend wasn't started by a guy named Albert in hopes of drumming up business for his overpriced frozen water and popularized by peer pressure. It's actually in pursuit of a much worthier cause than that - the viral videos help to bring support to those suffering from ALS.
Side note: If you thought that Albert the ice guy was responsible for all of this, I'm not judging you. That's what I thought until my little brother told me that it was my turn to dump ice water on my head, which is when I started educating myself.
The #IceBucketChallenge was started by the ALSA to raise awareness for ALS, and their system works pretty well. Challengees are supposed to take a video as they douse themselves with cold water and then upload that video to Instagram, Facebook or Youtube with the hashtag #IceBucketChallenge, #ALSIceBucketChallenge, or #StrikeoutALS. They then "nominate" four ish "friends" to dump ice water on their head, and so on until your entire Instagram feed is comprised of videos of your friends dumping ice on their heads with various degrees of creativity. The whole point is to raise awareness for ALS, and I'd say they're doing a pretty darn good job!
So far, the Ice Bucket Challenge has been hugely successful, raising over 15 million dollars for research and support for those with ALS. Amazing, right? The idea is that, if you don't take the challenge, you donate anywhere from $25-$100 to the ALS organization of your choice, which you can do here. It's basically a win-win-win, and it's kind of really fun! For evidence, please see the GIF below:
Allie
P.S. Have you dumped cold water on yourself yet? What do you think of the challenge?
And now it's over FIFTY million!!! So so inspiring :-)
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