7 Reasons the #IceBucketChallenge Shall Go On

A couple of weeks ago, I saw celebrities doing the ice bucket challenge and thought what crazy scheme is going on now?  A few days later, I started to see acquaintances on Facebook doing it…you know the people you’re friends with but don’t really know?  I still thought I was going to be ok.  Then, the count down was on when I started seeing my own friends and family doing it. I knew it was just a matter of time before I was nominated.  Now, I am not a fan of being cold or being on camera so I wasn’t thrilled but I used those few days to prep myself to do it.

I was nominated by my Father in Law to do the challenge.  It took a few takes because I don’t like to be on camera…..not the ice bucket part, the talking before it part.  I nominated my kids to do the challenge and they did theirs the next day.  After that I thought, how brilliant it was. So, here are 7 reason why the Ice Bucket Challenge shall live on!

1. Who doesn’t like a wet T-shirt contest? I think most men can appreciate watching their wife drenching themselves in ice cold water….all for a good cause, of course. This is a family friendly blog so I’ll leave this one alone now.
2. If you plan your kids’ ice bucket challenge around bath time, this might count as a night off for Mommy.
3. This humidity has this frizzy hair epidemic going through my family like wild fire.  Now you can tame those crazy hair styles in 3 seconds or less.
4. Some people just need it!  Maybe if we could start a random ice bucketing challenge somehow, that would be fun.  For example if your kids are just going bonkers and need to shock them into listening to Mom.  Or if your boss is really good at getting on your last nerve.  Or if for some reason your husband just needs a cold bath….it’s a family friendly blog so you can use this for whatever purpose you choose.
5. Cold water speeds up your metabolism. Ok, so this counts when you drink it but it has to something if you’re just doused in it, right?
6. Every video is very similar with a few differences.  It starts with some sort of opening speech sarcastically thanking who nominated them and listing who they are going to get back at for buying their kids the noisiest toys for their birthday and nominating them to do the challenge next. Then they sit there anxiously awaiting their ice bath.  They get soaked and then starts the laughing, screaming and squealing from the now donor, the camera man, the person dumping water.  The video is posted on Facebook where family and friends get a good laugh at it too. The point is, at the end every of every challenge, people are laughing and having fun at the expense of some free or cheap ice, water and and a small donation.  What’s wrong with that?
7. Sadly, I know that I am part of a large population of people that didn’t know what ALS was before this silly challenge.  At first, it sounded weird and then I seen how it was working to raise money for ALS.  My kids and I both learned about the disease and where our donations were going. Without these silly antics, would you have found yourself just donating because someone posted on Facebook and nominated you to do so?  Would it have made you google the disease to find out more?  Would you hear about it on the news?  If it didn’t turn into such a craze, do you think celebrities would be donating huge amounts of money and telling people to do it at their concerts? 

I started writing this because I see a small group of people almost rallying to put an end to the ice bucket challenge.  People claiming we are wasting fresh water while other countries are drinking dirty water.  People saying it’s stupid and these people need our money, not ice water on our heads.  I can’t help but to think how silly these people sound.  They are trying to bring down a charity from raising money for a good cause?!?!?

A few minutes after sharing my ice bucket challenge, a former NFL player announced he was recently diagnosed with ALS.  We went to the same high school.  He was a few years younger than me.  Our high school - the only high school in our district and probably didn’t have more than 400-500 of students in it each year, gathered over 750 people on the football field a week later to do the ice bucket challenge.  Parents, current students, alumni, family of alumni were there to show their support and donate.  It hit me a little harder because I knew him but those videos were making me tear up.  Watching his parents there, overwhelmed with how much support they had, was very heart warming.  My twins were sick that day so I couldn’t make it, unfortunately. (No relation to having ice water dumped on their heads)

So, this silly ice bucket challenge isn’t about wasting water, money, time, newsfeed space.  It’s about raising awareness for ALS.  Everything fizzles out and eventually this will too….well, it will be getting cold here soon so I think that puts a damper on things. This isn’t the same as seeing the Kardashians in the news again.  This is a charity that desperately needs funding.  Right now, ALS has the spotlight.  There is no reason anyone should take it from them.

For the ones that passionately call out those who don’t actually donate after their challenge - think of it this way.  Some people can’t donate for their own financial situations.  Yes, the challenge is to donate money when you’re done.  But for those that do the challenge and skip the donation part, may have nominated someone who donated their $10 or even more and they nominated someone else and so on.

For more information and donating, go to http://www.alsa.org/donate