ALS and Ice

For the past month, our Facebook news feeds have increasingly been full of videos of people dumping buckets of ice on themselves and nominating others to do the same. Many ice bucket challenge videos have gone viral for having gone awry in hilarious ways or people applying great ingenuity and creativity in completing their ice bucket challenges. Our friends have done it, our parents have done it, even our favorite celebrities have done it. Perhaps even you have partaken in the ice bucket challenge craze! 

So what exactly is ALS? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,  or more commonly “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”, is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is such a horrifying disease because it slowly kills by affecting one’s ability to move. Those who suffer from ALS eventually die of the disease because they eventually become paralyzed and eventually cannot eat or breathe on their own. 

And what exactly is the challenge? When you have been nominated to partake in the ice bucket challenge, you are to pour a bucket of ice water on yourself and then nominate others to do that same. Originally, the motivating factor to partake in the challenge was because if you didn’t, you would have to donate $100 to the ALS Association.

What has seperated the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from being just the latest in the string of social media “slacktivism” movements is that people aren’t just dumping buckets of ice on their heads but people are actually donating too! Not everyone has stuck to the $100 goal – some have donated less and some have donated more. But the point is that people are donating and actually making a difference this time! In the past month, the ALS Assocation has received $100 million in donations!

When the ice bucket challenge first began to gain momentum, I had sat back and laughed as I watched video after video of my friends shrieking and sputtering as ice water was poured them. I hadn’t been nominated and that was fine with me. But then more videos started circulating through that went farther than simply pour ice water on someone- personal testimonial videos of people living with ALS began appearing on my news feed and I began to hope I would be nominated too so I could help make a difference. 

This video in particular was striking for me because this is probably the most brutally honest testimonial about ALS I’ve come across. 

Then Sunday night rolled around and one of my roommates was nominated by a family member. Since she was the first in our apartment to be nominated to complete the ice bucket challenge, the rest of us were obvious choices to be next. And next we were. So Tuesday after a hot afternoon of sitting out in the sun and recruiting awesome new writers for SAU HerCampus at Club Fest, SAU HerCampus Editor Rachel Pasker and I were more than ready for the challenge. 

If you’ve completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, send us your pics or videos to our Facebook page: Her Campus St. Ambrose! We’d love to see them! If you haven’t completed the challenge yet, I nominate YOU to do your part to help make a difference. Click here for more information! 

Title Image Source: http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_33/612011/140811-boston-ice-b… Inforgraphic Source: http://dawgfan89.com/dawgfan89com/2013/12/13/what-you-dont-know-about-als