Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past month or are immune to the social media takeover, you’ve seen the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and you’ve got a general idea what it’s about.
The rules are simple: dump a bucket of ice water on your head or donate to the ALS Association and nominate a few friends to do the same.
While the challenge may seem silly, it’s raised $31.5 million for the ALS Association as of Wednesday. That’s compared to only $1.8 million raised during the same time (July 29 – Aug. 20) last year. It’s also got thousands asking a question that’s rarely heard, “What is ALS?”
Better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that slowly impedes the brain’s ability to initiate control over muscle movement. It progresses quickly and leaves patients paralyzed. There is no cure and the average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with ALS is two to five years, according to the association’s website.
So yeah, it’s a pretty terrifying disease and it affects thousands each year.
No, dumping a bucket of ice on your head won’t solve the problems of every ALS patient. But that’s not the point.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was started to educate and raise research funds for a deadly disease that isn’t a top medical research priority. And it’s doing just that.
Yet people have already grown tired of the videos clogging their news feeds and have taken to complaining rather
than listening.
The ALS Ice Bucket challenge isn’t about you and what you find annoying. It’s about people like Steve Gleason, a former Washington State University and New Orleans Saints football player, who now sits almost completely paralyzed in a motorized chair from his battle with ALS. It’s about people like my childhood soccer coach Mike Sprenger, who has touched more Moscow lives than he knows and is bravely facing ALS daily.
The Ice Bucket challenge is getting people to talk about the disease. It’s making them wonder what they can do to help, and it’s making a difference in the lives of the people it’s truly about. That’s what awareness is, and it’s working.
You don’t have to dump a bucket of ice on your head to make a difference, but you can donate to the cause via the ALS Association at www.alsa.org. If you’re one of those who’s skeptical of large research institutions, find a way to make a difference by donating to a local home health organization or meal service that can at least make life a little easier for someone you may know who is suffering from ALS.
If you do dump ice on your head, make sure you clearly understand and state what it’s for, and if you can, try to donate as well. You’re doing this for ALS, not to be apart of a viral web video. This isn’t the Harlem Shake.
Whatever you do, don’t just sit behind your computer screen and complain because I can say for a fact, you’re not helping anyone.
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]
More info
5,600
people are diagnosed with ALS each year
2 to 5
years is the average life expectancy for someone with ALS
$31.5
million raised by the ALS Challenge as of Wednesday compared to last year’s $1.8 million