Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog: Ice bucket challlenge a hit for charity

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By Jill Vejnoska
Talk about a bucket list!
You've probably heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge by now. Heck, at this very moment, you might even be picking a few lingering stalactites from your own nostrils — all the while good-naturedly cursing the well-meaning "friend" who got you into this.

At least you're in good, shivering company:
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has poured a bucket of frigid water all over himself to help raise awareness for ALS. So have Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, fine living doyenne Martha Stewart ( she probably made her own, very classy bucket) and a whole bucketload of Kennedys en masse. (Check out these "Best Celebrity ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Videos" here.)

Nor is it just big names taking the plunge. About 100 employees of Atlanta-based small business online lender Kabbage took the ice bucket challenge Friday morning. Meanwhile, you can't open up your email or Twitter or Facebook feeds these days without discovering they contain a few more hilarious new videos of someone you know suddenly sporting soaked clothes and extremely shocked looks on their faces.

In the unlikely event you've been stuck off on an ice floe somewhere, here's a quick catch-up on what's become a viral video and social networking sensation. And — better yet — a public relations and fundraising boon for The ALS Association. The challenge was created in late July by former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates and fellow ALS patient Pat Quinn. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS has no cure and often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis.

Frates has lost the ability to talk, but the idea for the challenge spoke volumes in other ways: Pour a bucket of ice cold water all over yourself, preferably on video; then issue a very public challenge to someone else to do the same. That person then has 24 hours to make good on the challenge, or else make a $100 donation to an ALS charity. And so on.
Who knew that one little drop in the bucket would quickly grow into a bigger water-based sensation than "Sharknado?" On TV, the "Good Morning America" team doused itself then issued an on-air "I dare 'ya" to the cast of "Modern Family." On Twitter, #icebucketchallenge is trending with everyone from Nancy Grace to the Broadway cast and crew of "The Book of Mormon."
Of course, a few naysayers have tried pouring cold water all over the grassroots campaign, complaining that it gives people a watery out from making donations.
In fact, though, it seems just the opposite is happening.
In a little over two weeks, some $9.5 million in donations have poured into The ALS Association and its 38 chapters, compared to $1.6 million over the same period last year. (Kabbage is donating $100 per employee who participated in the challenge). Equally important when it comes to fighting something many people know only vaguely as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," public awareness is clearly on an upswing. Since July 29th, some 70,000 new donors have contributed to the association.
"We have never seen anything like this in the history of the disease," said Barbara Newhouse, president and CEO of The ALS Association. "People who have never before heard of ALS are now engaged in the fight to find treatments and a cure for ALS."
In other words, Go soak your head.

Labels: ALS, ice bucket challenge, The ALS Associatio