Ice Bucket Challenge

For the book by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge, see Ice Bucket Challenge: Pete Frates and the Fight Against ALS.

A person performing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, was an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease) and encourage donations to research. The challenge was co-founded by Pat Quinn and Pete Frates;[1] it went viral on social media during July–August 2014.[2][3] In the United States, many people participated for the ALS Association, and in the United Kingdom, many people participated for the Motor Neurone Disease Association,[4] although some individuals opted to donate their money from the Ice Bucket Challenge to other organizations.[5]

The challenge encourages nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.[6]

On August 1, 2015, a group of ALS organizations in the United States, including the ALS Association, Les Turner ALS Foundation, and ALS Therapy Development Institute, re-introduced the Ice Bucket Challenge for 2015 to raise further funds with the intention of establishing it as an annual occurrence. It failed to raise the same viral attention as the 2014 event, which raised over $115M[7] worldwide for the disease.[8] However some people—including celebrities and various government officials around the world—have followed through with the intention of a yearly event by continuing to perform the challenge again each subsequent summer.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

  1. ^ "Co-Founder of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Which Raised $200 Million for Research, Dies at 37". Time. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  2. ^ Lost Coast of New Zealand (July 9, 2014). "Charities benefit from viral ice challenge". TVNZ. TVNZ. Archived from the original on July 9, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  3. ^ "News". Cancer Society Auckland. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  4. ^ Sample, Ian; Woolf, Nicky (July 27, 2016). "How the ice bucket challenge led to an ALS research breakthrough". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  5. ^ Jordan, Erin (August 27, 2014). "Catholic organizations encourage ice bucket donations to Iowa City-area research institute". KCRG-TV. Archived from the original on August 29, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014. An Iowa City-area research institute has received donations from around the world as Catholic organizations encourage members to route their Ice Bucket Challenge gifts to an organization that doesn't do research on embryonic stem cells. The John Paul II Medical Research Institute, founded in 2008 by Dr. Alan Moy, an Iowa City pulmonologist, has gotten "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in donations from people who want to support research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), but don't want the research done with human embryos, said CEO Jay Kamath.
  6. ^ Arco, Matt (August 13, 2014). "Governor Chris Christie gets in on 'Ice Bucket Challenge', dares Cory Booker". Nj.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  7. ^ "Ice Bucket Challenge dramatically accelerated the fight against ALS". The ALS Association. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  8. ^ "Buffalo Welcomes Return of Ice Bucket Challenge at ALS Walk". TWC News. August 1, 2015. Archived from the original on October 7, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference abc2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference torontosun16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference buffalo2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference boston was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Skorea was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference 5thboston was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference quinnmemorialibc21 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).