By now, I’m sure you’ve seen many of your friends and family do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. You’ve probably seen your favorite actor, musician or athlete do it too. In fact, there is a good chance that you have also completed the Challenge. Your Facebook time line is probably clogged with people pouring ice cold water on themselves. Are you bored of it yet? Well don’t be.
Despite the fact that you have seen it everywhere, many don’t know how it became about ALS and even more don’t know the correct way to complete the challenge.
This is Pete Frates. He was 27 when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 27 when a doctor looked him in the eyes and told him he has a disease that was a death sentence and has no cure and no course of treatment.
You wouldn’t blame the guy for giving up. You wouldn’t blame him for feeling sorry for himself or being angry. That’s not what happened though. You see, Pete was a hard nosed baseball player. He was the captain of the Boston College team. Giving up wasn’t something he was accustomed to. So he charged at the problem and began speaking and raising money for the ALSA which is an association that aides research in the hopes of finding a cure for ALS.
It was Pete’s friends that had seen others doing this ice bucket challenge to benefit various charities and decided to do it in honor of Pete. Well, it took off and now Pete has achieved what he set out to do. Pete is the reason that since July 29th of this year, ALSA.org has raised $31.5 million. And just to point out how incredible that actually is, that’s 16 times more than what the foundation received in the same time period last year.
Still, we can all do better. There are still many who don’t quite grasp how the challenge works. If you are nominated to complete the challenge, you are expected to dump a bucket of ice water over your head AND donate an amount of your choice to The ALSA . You can choose to not dump the water over your head and donate no less than $100. Either way, the foundation should be receiving a donation.
The whole point of dumping the ice water is to add a little fun to donating for a good cause. It keeps the cause circulating and getting bigger because each person nominates 3 others to complete the challenge.
I have to admit, I was one of the people who did not believe this challenge was helping anyone because I just didn’t understand it, but now that I do, I am amazed by how such an amazing cause has spread like wildfire. And it’s all thanks to a wonderful man names Pete Frates and his awesome friends. Thanks Pete!
To learn more about Pete and his cause, watch this ESPN special on Pete Frates and the Ice Bucket Challenge!
