So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, you’ve seen what the Ice Bucket Challenge is. Or at least, you know that it’s a big thing. For those of you who somehow don’t know what’s going on, here’s the basic gist.
Pretty simple right? Donate $10 to the ALSA and dump a bucket of ice water on your head, or donate $100. For those in the UK who don’t exactly have an easy time doing currency conversions, most donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA). Of course, you can always donate more and a lot of people have, but that’s just the standard rules. But where did the challenge originate?
When it comes specifically to ALS, we can take it back to Chris Kennedy. Kennedy challenged his cousin-in-law, whose husband has the disease, who then challenged more people. Eventually Pat Quinn, an athlete who was diagnosed with the disease, got the challenge as well. When it got to Quinn, he put it on his Facebook page, which started a trend. So the veritable flood of videos on your Facebook wall can be directly traced back to a minor-league professional golfer and his cousin.
His Ice Bucket Challenge wasn’t the first Ice Bucket however. That honor goes to another athlete, motocross racer Jeff Northrop three weeks before Kennedy turned it to ALS. Northrop was fundraising for his nephew, who also has medical problems. But even he might not have been the first. Around the same time, Arizona basketball coach Niya Butts is credited for starting another ice bucket trend for cancer research in the women’s basketball community. Both happened around mid-June, but the dates of when both were first performed compared to when they were reported are a bit difficult to determine. The basketball trend got its own hashtag, known as #Chillin4Charity.
So being doused in ice water seems to be a bit of a trend in raising awareness this year. But it also extends even farther back, like 2013’s Cold Water Challenges for different diseases and conditions.
Or we could go even farther back. Do you know how old the Polar Bear Plunge is? People have been dousing themselves in cold water for centuries, but if we’re just going to look at once specific one bringing awareness to a charity or to honor someone, lets go with the oldest. Boston’s annual Plunge has been going on since at least 1904, and that’s just the earliest date we have written confirmation of.
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There has been a lot of criticism of the challenge, of course. A lot of it is valid. Especially when you’re watching people in California dump buckets of water on their heads in a drought. Although I’d like to think there are some simple ways around that particular one. Using less water than one of the giant paint drums is one of them.I had a friend who got challenged who used a little watering can for her porch plants in an effort to conserve water. And that’s totally fine and valid. You don’t have to dump a gigantic tub of water over your head. Just do what you can, and help spread awareness.
Maybe you have an issue with the particular type of experimentation process the ALSA is using. That’s totally reasonable too. Just say in particular where you’re going to be donating and say it’s still for ALS, and understand if people don’t agree with your opinions and beliefs. There’s plenty of organizations that are working towards treatments that could use the support. The ALSA just happens to be the big one.
The Ice Bucket Challenge doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Maybe after a while it won’t be specifically for ALS, but getting freezing water poured over yourself and recording it does get people’s attention in a big way. If even half of the people who have seen a challenge video looked up what ALS is afterwards, that’s millions of people who now know what the disease is and how it affects people. If everyone who has made a video donated something, that is a lot of money for research. And think of the people who were challenged and didn’t do the ice part of it! Even if half of the challenges weren’t answered there is still a lot of money going to a good cause. I know my three challenges went for the money route, and I donated $25, so that’s $325 right there from four people who know more about ALS than they did when the challenges started.
The challenge has hit Celebrities….
Entrepreneurs….
Professional Athletes….
Musicians….
Universities….
High Schools….
Everyday People….
It’s even hit Actively Nerdy….
And even if you don’t pour water on your head…
It’s helping bring awareness. Just be safe about it.
To find out more about ALS, visit ALSA.org. You can even find out the official rules on the site, and many different resources if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. And just know, you’re not alone. It might be difficult, but people have led long, fulfilling lives with ALS.
Just look at Stephen Hawking.
