Ice Bucket Challenge Sweeps the Nation

WHS Lions Pride Original Story:

by Elizabeth Knight

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has taken the world by storm. Chances are you know someone who has done this challenge or maybe you have even done the challenge yourself.

Before the challenge arose most people didn’t even know what ALS stood for, but now because of all the publicity that the challenge has brought on more people are aware of what ALS is.

The challenge consists of a person being nominated to either dump a bucket of cold ice water on their head and film it and then nominate someone else, or the person nominated can donate to alsa.org. Some people even choose to do both because by posting a video of them dumping the water on their head they are raising awareness for the cause.

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or it’s also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  This disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Approximately 5,600 people are diagnosed with ALS each year, and about 30,000 Americans have the disease.

According to www.wtop.com the ALS organization has raised an astonishing $9 million a week since the end of July. Last year between July 29th to August 26th they only raised $2.6 million. As you can see the Ice Bucket Challenge has brought in a significant amount of revenue this year compared to last year.

On the ALS website, www.alsa.org, they have a breakdown of how their expenses were used in the previous year. About $7.2 million raised last year was spent on research to figure out cures for the disease. Another $8.5 million was spent on educating people about the disease in both public and private settings. So by donating you are helping further education and research even more.

When asked if she thought this challenge has helped bring awareness for the charity Senior, Molly Updagraff said, “Yeah, because most people didn’t know what ALS stood for so they would go look it up and maybe even donate.”

Senior, Holly Ferris, said “It raised so much awareness and ALS has so much more money than they did before to help find a cure.” The #icebucketchallenge has been taking the world by one bucket at a time.

Junior, Alexandra Taylor, said “At first I didn’t understand the significance of the ice water, but as I became more aware of ALS, I realized that the ice water gives you the feeling people living with ALS experience every day,” Taylor also said that, “That is what influenced me and many others to donate to the cause.”

I nominate all of you to go out and help spread awareness about this disease.