Students dunk buckets of ice cold water on their friends, children soak their parents, teams splash coolers of water on their coaches or teammates- all to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
“It spreads awareness by informing people that ALS is out there,” junior Dominic Marren said. “The Ice Bucket Challenge is important because it raises money to find a cure.”
For the past couple of months an epidemic of people taking part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has spread throughout the country, with participants ranging from students to celebrities. The challenge is designed to raise awareness about ALS and generate money to find a cure.
“It spread fast because of all the influence from celebrities who did it,” Marren said.
Marren, who was nominated by senior Austin Sellinger to do the challenge nominated his friends junior Aaron Graham, and senior Issiah Tate through Facebook. Prior to completing the challenge, Marren donated $10 to the cause.
“It was cold, but it was worth it for a good cause,” Marren said.
The general rules of the ALS ice bucket challenge are that a person who is nominated has 24 hours to be dunked with ice cold water. Next, he or she must post of picture or video of this to some form of social media and nominate three more people.
If a nominee fails to complete this, he or she must donate $100 to the ALS foundation.
Many participants also donate a small amount of money or the of “likes” they get on their video or picture equivalent to the number.
“It is a very big success on social media, so it is spreading awareness with each person who does it,” junior Katie Heitz said. “It’s a good way to spread awareness because everyone is on social media and it spreads faster that way.”
Heitz was influenced by a video she watched about a man who had ALS and how the disease affected his life.
“The video was really sad and touching,” Heitz said. “It is a horrible disease that needs to be know about.”
ALS is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Degeneration of these nerve cells eventually leads to death. Sophomore Jake Schwartz related his experience of the ice bucket challenge as a representation of the disease.
“When I did the challenge I felt frozen in place but my mind still worked,” Schwartz said. “The significance is to somewhat get the sensation of what ALS feels like.”
Schwartz was nominated by sophomore Casey Goodman and choose to nominate sophomores Kyle Folsom, and Mary Rothrock, for the ice bucket challenge.
“I think that it spread so quickly because it’s an easy challenge that anyone can do,” Schwartz said.
Another way the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was done in a large group. The marching band did the challenge after being nominated by Parkway North’s marching band.
“As soon as we got done playing our fight song, we all went down to the track, grabbed our popcorn buckets full of ice water, and after the countdown we poured it over ourselves,” senior band member Joel Broddon said.
The band carried out the ice bucket challenge on the track after the first varsity football game. Afterwards, they nominated the cheerleaders, show band and choir members.
“ALS isn’t discussed a lot, especially since the course of the disease is so sad for the families affected by it and the people who are diagnosed with it,” Rennard said. “Even though it’s pretty silly to dump a bucket of ice on your head, it makes people wonder why you’re doing it, and then look into ALS if they don’t know anything about it. It’s really important that people are aware about what ALS is, since there is no known cure and cause.”
However, Schwartz is concerned that with all the commotion over the ice bucket itself, people will overlook the meaning behind the challenge.
“I think it’s a good way to spread awareness quickly and everywhere, but I’m afraid that people don’t care that the challenge is about ALS and just want to pour water on their head,” Schwartz said.
Although the challenge has spread a significant amount of awareness, some participants are concerned that it will not have a long lasting effect.
“I thinks it’s a good way to spread awareness for a few months, but once the challenge dies down, people will most likely start to forget about ALS,” Marren said.
