An Icy Sensation: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

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kawaii_Otaku (Rachel) via Instagram

Looks like someone wanted to cool off!

Samantha Valero, Staff Writer

You’ve seen all of the videos on Instagram, Tumblr and even Facebook of some of your favorite celebrities dripping wet, soaked in ice cold water, jumping up and down possibly screaming “Cold! Cold! Cold!” This means you have most likely heard of The ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge.  The Ice Bucket Challenge consists of  nominating someone to pour one or more buckets of ice water on themselves and having it recorded and posted on any sort of social media. Once posted on the site or app of choice, the participant nominates others to do the challenge in 24 hours, and if they refuse or do not complete the challenge, they must donate as little as $5  and as much as they desire to the ALS foundation. The challenge was started on August sixth, 2014 by the head of the ALS board, who spoke about what the challenge was and then actually did it.

“I love the ALS Ice Challenge. I’ve seen many YouTubers do it to raise awareness. I think it is a great way to raise awareness – anyone can do the challenge! I would love to do the challenge – it’s for a good cause and I’ve got nothing to lose, so why not?” freshman Angela Corrales said.

The main purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, and later affects the muscles, slowly shutting down vital systems. As of  Tuesday August 19th, 22.9 million Dollars had been raised  in donations from the challenge alone. If you’d like to donate money to the ALS association, you can click  here.

“The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is an ingenious, grassroots style use of social media to raise awareness for a good cause,”Assistant Principal Mr.Hernandez said.

Evidently, the ALS foundation is not only extremely successful, traditional and helpful; it is something that can save lives, and you get to have fun helping! What are you waiting for?