In the past week, chances are you've seen at least one video of a friend, celebrity, or in my case, your favourite teacher, dumping a bucket of ice water over their head. If you didn't have any background knowledge, you'd probably think it was another stupid fad passing over the internet, likely just as stupid as the neknominations that made their way over the internet back in February. However, the ALS ice bucket challenge is the farthest thing from a stupid fad.
The Challenge: Once nominated, you have two choices. One, You pour the ice water and donate however much you desire to ALS research. Two, You skip pouring the ice water and donate at least one hundred dollars to research. Many people have taken the challenge without knowing the exact conditions and skipped out on donating, but enough haven't missed that memo, and thanks to the ice bucket challenge, $40 million dollars has been donated to ALS research in the past week alone, whereas the same time period last year raised $2 million dollars.
Now, a little bit of information on ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), or more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease . “It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.” To dumb it down, for those of you (myself included) who read that and it instantly made your head hurt, your body breaks down, you lose the use of your hands, legs, you lose the ability to talk and eventually, the ability to breathe. The idea of pouring a bucket of ice cold water over your head doesn't exactly sound appealing to those nominated for the challenge, which unfortunately, is the point. When pouring said bucket of water, the cold instantly shocks your nerves, and potentially numbs parts of your body. This is the closest you will ever feel to the symptoms of ALS, which is why its done.
Thankfully, I am not personally affected by ALS. My family doesn't have a history with it, so I've never witnessed the pain someone goes through, however I have done my research, and I now know just how serious it is. So, next time you see one of your friends pouring an ice bucket over their head, applaud them if they know why they're doing it. If they don't, PLEASE, inform them. It never hurts to shed light on the truth behind the challenge. And now, with each bucket overturned, someone new is discovering what ALS is, and each freezing cold nominee is making a difference- whether they donate or not. People are aware of what this disease its, and that in itself makes a difference. Although people believe this is just another fad, I promise you, its not. Its important, and I'm thrilled people are learning about it. If you want to donate, I nominate you, the reader, to do so. Hell, I nominate all of you to dump that chilling bucket over your head, too. Every dollar makes a difference in the journey to finding a cure and I would personally like to say thank you to everyone who already has.
Written by: Abigail Burns