ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I follow a Blogger on the Huff Post Impact section, The Blog, Lisa R. Petty. She recently wrote an article about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, you can read the full article here.

If you're not completely aware of what the challenge is here is a quick run down, Pete Frates a former Boston College baseball captain was diagnosed with ALS in 2012 since then he has been a HUGE advocate in raising awareness of this disease. While I'm not exactly sure how the challenge started it has become this...dump a bucket of ice water on your head AND donate $10 to ALS or don't dump the water and donate $100. There is a great article on ESPN about Pete and ALS here. 

I was upset, angry and shocked by time I completed the second paragraph. By time I finished the article I was going to comment with a lengthy reply, changed my mind and decided the best way for me to work through the disappointment of this article and her mindset was to post here.

There are a few points Lisa mentions that pushed a button in me...

She will not donate to an organization with a bunch of fanfare. - Huh? What fanfare?? Without fanfare the money ALS.org has been able to raise this year would not be possible and I must say all those $10 donations (and all the others without ice buckets involved) have brought so much awareness to such a horrible disease. According to als.org donations as of August 10 surpassed $10 MILLION dollars, as of August 19th donations are now close to $23 MILLION, that's a lot of $10 ice buckets! In 2013 the same time frame, July 29 - Aug 14 only raised $1.4 MILLION dollars, that's a 766% increase from last year. I'll stick with fanfare, ALS and my other favorite organizations...I like fanfare for raising awareness!

Discovered in 1869 - So what, the disease was discovered in 1869. What has been done in the last 100 or so years to further finding a cure for this 100% FATAL DISEASE?? Yes, I said 100% FATAL! This so called fanfare as I mentioned above has caused an onslaught of donations from around the world not just the country, this is what such organizations need.

Everyone knows about ALS - NOT everyone knows about ALS, such assumptions / broad statements should not be made, you have heard the old adage right? Assuming makes an a$$ out of you not me. Most people I talk to have never heard of it. Even if I say Lou Gehrig's disease they still don't completely get what it is, oh they know Lou Gehrig played baseball, they may even know his stats but not the devastating disease that killed him and many, many more after him.

Wasting water / drought - Now this I can agree with on some level. Lisa mentions a drought in California however every celebrity that I have seen accept the challenge has done so in front of VERY FULL in-ground pools. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume they are using pool water for this, just because I like to look on the positive side of things. :) As for the rest of us accepting this challenge well I'm sure some around the country / world waste more water doing dishes than has been wasted in these challenges. If done outside the ground is watered again thus the circle of things and if they are being done indoors at least it's going back through the treatment centers to be reprocessed and put back out into the world.

Let's concentrate on the positive of this challenge instead of one woman's desire to NOT be publicly doused in cold water for a great cause. 

How about the fact that an ALS patient is the one that started this phenom? What about his mission to educate the world on this 100% fatal disease? So what if dumping a bucket of ice water on your head leads to a lesser amount in a donation those donations are just as important as the $1,000 or $10,000 or $1,000,000 they get from any one donor. As far as I'm concerned Pete Frates is an exceptional human being, check out this awesome video about his journey here.

I am proud to have been challenged and participate in this fanfare! I made my donation, did you? If not, you can donate at als.org and click the red Donate link at the top right.