"Hey, does anyone know where I can go to see pictures of kids on their first day of school and people dumping buckets of ice water on their heads?"
For those of you who (somehow) have not seen or heard, there is an awareness push for ALS going on right now. People have a choice to either donate $100 towards ALS research or video tape themselves dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads. Just before dowsing themselves, the person "nominates" at least one other person to the challenge of donation versus drowning. That person then has 24 hours to make a choice.
So, as you can imagine, I got nominated. Great. I had already scrolled through and watched tons of people on Facebook doing this challenge, and really just didn't want to pour ice water over my head. Plus, I didn't understand how choosing that over donating money was really helping the cause. So, I chose to give cash instead of making a video. Well, and yes, ok, I didn't want to make a video where my hair gets soaked- it just looks weird when it's wet!
I continued to see these postings for the next couple of days, and I have honestly enjoyed watching some of them, especially the creative ones and when children are involved. But geez- how many more people could there possibly be left who I know that hadn't been asked to the challenge?
Then, the 11-year old got nominated.
Three of his friends had vidoes posted on Instagram and had called him out today. He turned to me and asked what it was all about.
I explained as best I could what ALS is and what his choices in the challenge were, and although the water part intrigued him, he thought for a moment and asked, "But the ice water part isn't really helping money-wise ,is it?".
That's when I finally understood. I told him that although he couldn't necessarily give $100, just by nominating someone else he helps to raise awareness about the disease. He looked at me questioningly still.
" Did you know what ALS was before you got nominated?" I asked.
"Ahh....I get it. Nope. I didn't".
And so ensued an immediate panic on his part to complete his quest. By this time it was pitch black outside, so we opted for the bathtub. Using his ice water left over from football practice, Sam soaked himself (and the bathroom floor...) with a smile on his face, and dutifully nominated one of his friends as well.
Later, as I was perusing Facebook, I found another post from a friend. This friend, though, had lost both his mother and grandmother to ALS. He said the Ice Bucket challenge had already raised $22.9 million in the last 22 days. This is compared to their entire 2013 total of $23.5 million.
Whoa.
Today's pic represents how social media can be used in a way to help and teach others. The 11-year old and I spent some time together on my Ipad tonight looking at the ALS website and learning more about this debilitating disease. So I'm sorry to disappoint anyone by not posting a video of myself and a bucket full of water, but know that all of your videos have truly done their job of raising not only money, but awareness. Do you know what ALS is?
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