ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

[nightshade]

What do you think of this, it's raised millions of dollars for the charity and has worldwide interest. Has it made you more aware of the disease or is it just about people getting water poured over them. I was nominated to do it and have done it but to me I have felt that I haven't actually done anything for the charity. Have any of you done it and how do you feel about it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9iPuEcsaGA

 

[Blaze]

I think that as long as it doesn't lose meaning, it will be great. Of course, it doesn't really work unless a celebrity does it, because that's how they'll raise more awareness, people like to fallow their favorite celebrities.

The risk is that it will just become one of those trends of people doing this without even knowing why, or friends daring friends to do it because it's funny or whatever. For now, I think the campaign is a great, and they have raised a lot of money which is even better. It's fun to see people getting involved.

 

[sk]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of challenges like this.
Because it's so hard to back out, without looking stupid, even if you don't want to do it.
And I really don't like to be put into situations like that.

But it is for a good cause of course. So it's obviously not all bad.
Having celebrities to do it must help a lot. So that's cool I guess.

Just don't expect me to do it.
I can donate some money without getting wet, cold and being shown on YouTube... 🙂

/SK

 

[Robb Stark]

I really, really support it.

I think there important thing to remember is that ultimately the Ice Bucket Challenge is about awareness for the disease, and that that awareness has raised incredible amounts of money so far. Yes, there are idiots out there who only do it for the likes on Facebook but so what? There are people like that in every public initiative similar to this.

I think the Ice Bucket Challenge is great.

 

[Blaze]

[MENTION=12655]Still a Scoobie[/MENTION]; ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, it's a neurodegenerative disease and it affects motor neurons (affects things like muscles and speech).

The good thing is that this challenge will also make people google this disease, I learnt about it in my neuropsychology class, but it's definitely one of the more unknown brain disease that gets overlooked by people.

 

[nightshade]

Still a Scoobieagrees: it's already started to be a meaningless stunt here in the UK. It's been all over the place but I was only vaguely aware it's for charity and I still don't know what ALS means

ALS is the bigger term for what we know as Motor Neurone Disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07OT8p8Oik#t=118

this is an amazing video by someone who has recently been diagnosed with it

 

[Taake]

I really, really support it.

I think there important thing to remember is that ultimately the Ice Bucket Challenge is about awareness for the disease, and that that awareness has raised incredible amounts of money so far. Yes, there are idiots out there who only do it for the likes on Facebook but so what? There are people like that in every public initiative similar to this.

I think the Ice Bucket Challenge is great.

Agreed. Besides I think it's brilliant to tap into the zeitgeist and get charity to go viral so to speak. The internet is unlimited which has it's pro's and con's... Sure some people won't donate, but there's a great chance that people who otherwise wouldn't have (not knowing where to or that it was needed) will! It'll die out as the "thing" du jour but people will remember it.

 

[brinkster130]

I think dumping a bucket of ice water over your head is silly, but there is no denying that the challenge has been successful. Last I read the ALS Association has raised about 23 million from this challenge, and I've seen numerous people admit they didn't know what ALS was before the challenge took over social media....I can't hate on something that's working and doing something good!

 

[Still a Scoobie]

[MENTION=12655]Still a Scoobie[/MENTION]; ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, it's a neurodegenerative disease and it affects motor neurons (affects things like muscles and speech).

The good thing is that this challenge will also make people google this disease, I learnt about it in my neuropsychology class, but it's definitely one of the more unknown brain disease that gets overlooked by people.

ALS is the bigger term for what we know as Motor Neurone Disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07OT8p8Oik#t=118

this is an amazing video by someone who has recently been diagnosed with it

Thanks guys.



apparently this post needed more characters, so I'll go with Buffy, Anya and Spike.

 

[white avenger]

[MENTION=12655]Still a Scoobie[/MENTION]; ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, it's a neurodegenerative disease and it affects motor neurons (affects things like muscles and speech).

The good thing is that this challenge will also make people google this disease, I learnt about it in my neuropsychology class, but it's definitely one of the more unknown brain disease that gets overlooked by people.

Most people in the United States are more likely to refer to ALS as Lou Gehrig's Disease, though I doubt that many of them know exactly what it is or what it causes.

 

[Silverspike]

Looks like Whedon has added his name to those taking the challenge. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLuTLH-C0h4

 

[Spikefan31]

In Australia ALS is called motor neurone disease (MND), but I don't think a lot of people here are aware of that.

 

[BuffyElevated]

This whole thing has left a bitter taste in my mouth. If people are truly doing it to raise awareness and are actually donating to research, that is great, but I feel like most people are only doing it to get in on the latest trend. My sister even said last night "I didn't even know that's what it was for" when I told her she was supposed to donate to ALS research. And I think a lot of people are the same way; they only see the fun of getting to make a "cool" video, not the true reason for this challenge.

I have a friend who was just 1 year older than me who died of ALS last year. My friend Stacy was one of the brightest stars in the sky to everyone who ever met her, and he lost her life at the age of 32. The struggles she and her husband, Mike, went through were unfathomable and absolutely heartwrenching to watch. To see someone who used to be so full of life get to the point where she could no longer even blow her own nose was terrible. I think about her a lot as I see people keep posting these videos and it makes me almost angry, like it's a slap in the face to Stacy and Mike and millions of others who have had to watch their loved ones suffer and ultimately die.

 

[SRMarx]

I have mixed feelings about the ice bucket challenge. One one hand, it is great that the ice bucket challenge is raising awareness and donations for ALS, but on the other hand, I don't like the idea of wasting water. I know some people do the challenge on their lawns or have found creative ways to avoid dumping a whole bucket of ice water--but some places in the U.S. (and I can only speak for the U.S.) are going through some terrible droughts right now.

The intention behind the ice bucket challenge was obviously a very good one. And it was completely a genius idea because people love internet trends and nothing spreads faster. Good for ALS!

But now, most of us are aware, so can we stop potentially wasting water and just write our checks and spread awareness in another way? Just my personal opinion.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

Here in England, the Ice Bucket challenge has been hijacked by MacMillan, a cancer charity, which is very annoying to me. We don't need to raise awareness for cancer, funds yes but there are countless other ways that people do that and have been doing for ages, yet they felt they had to steal focus from something another charity was doing? Shame.

This is a really common thing, or so I've found since starting to volunteer with a local charity. We have to compete quite fiercely with a lot of national charities and it can be quite a struggle sometimes.

 

[Xin Rong]

I read it made 48 million, and people seem to be enjoying it, to me that's a win!

There's always going to be cynicism with this kind of thing, but the results are what are important: money for charities, awareness and fun. Why complain?

 

[Still a Scoobie]

The challenge itself is something I support and it's obviously no bad thing that they've raised $50m and got a lot of people to have a bit of fun. I would never complain about that. What I dislike about the phenomenon of the Ice Bucket Challenge is that firstly people were doing it for no charity at all (that was the worst part) and now another charity has muscled in, especially when this was mainly about raising awareness and literally everyone is already aware of the interloping charity's thing.

 

[nightshade]

Here in England, the Ice Bucket challenge has been hijacked by MacMillan, a cancer charity, which is very annoying to me. We don't need to raise awareness for cancer, funds yes but there are countless other ways that people do that and have been doing for ages, yet they felt they had to steal focus from something another charity was doing? Shame.

This is a really common thing, or so I've found since starting to volunteer with a local charity. We have to compete quite fiercely with a lot of national charities and it can be quite a struggle sometimes.

I didn't know MacMillian were trying to hijack it! everyone I know that has done it here is doing it for the ALS challenge.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

I didn't know MacMillian were trying to hijack it! everyone I know that has done it here is doing it for the ALS challenge.

yeah, me and a friend had a little debate earlier about it. She says the ALSA keep too much of the money, I say it's a Motor Neurone Disease campaign, and that until now that disease has had too little exposure compared to other causes so people should find another MND/ALS charity to donate to if they don't like the main one.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I don't know.

On one hand, I think it's kind of stupid: a waste of water, really.

However, it has done what it set out to do. I didn't even know what ALS was before this.

It'd been pretty entertaining watching my favorite celebrties doing it, I'll admit! My favorites so far have been Summar Glau's, Taylor Hanson, and David Lynch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wojipZ9g0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydNLzK_JjNc
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...enge_video_is_very_lynchian.html?wpsrc=fol_fb