The Ice Bucket Challenge Has Made a Difference

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If you’ve touched social media (especially Facebook) in the last two weeks, you’ve undoubtedly seen the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge was started with intentions to go viral as individuals challenged their friends to dump buckets of, you guessed it, ice and water on their heads. It has evolved past awareness for the ALS foundation as it has lead to record donations by the people icing themselves. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was most commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and as Gehrig’s name has begun fading from the public consciousness even after a rekindling during Cal Ripken’s major league run in the 1990’s, ALS’s notoriety had fallen by the wayside as well.

With the challenge going viral like many other trends on social media such as the Cinnamon Challenge or the Fire Challenge, this one was one that pretty much anyone could pull off with relative ease and gave a quick laugh to those watching. With celebrities like Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga putting their own spin on it, ALS charities raised over 15.6 million dollars so far and the number continues to grow.

Surprisingly (but actually not totally surprisingly since there are some pretty lame people online), there have been a rash of anti-Ice Bucket Challenge posts with most of them being unwarranted or cynical for the sake of attention. In California, people are stating it is a dumb idea because there is a drought yet those people don’t seem to be conserving water in any way. The only statement that seems reasonable is that it seems pretty strange for people to push out a video for the cause but not actually making a donation.

Last night, I accepted a double challenge along with WallE to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. In response, we both have donated to Team Gleason and are pushing out challenge online which you can see below. We have extended our challenge to Michael Huffman (who you may have seen as the awesome Gambit cosplay from this year’s SDCC), our lovely lady friends from the YouTube channel Creature and the Flickcast’s very own Matt Raub.

Please head to TeamGleason.org and consider donating as well, whether or not you’ve been challenged. If you’re walking around with a smartphone in your pocket, an expensive purse or an XBox One and a big screen TV, think about what you’ve been lucky enough to have in your life and consider paying that forward to others who may not have been.

About John Carle

The Definition of “Geek Chic.” Comic books, sci-fi movies, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Lord of the Rings and more all rolled up in a Diesel wearing, club going socialite package. Having worked in both advertising and television, John is a lifetime writer always being a part of the creative process. John knows the television world between his experience on being involved with the production process of over two hundred episodes of prime time tv and being a self admitted media whore. Yes he has a weakness for trash tv, Michael Bay-esque action movies and the raunchy teen comedy as well. Never try to debate the Original Star Wars Trilogy versus Star Trek with him because the Holy Trilogy always comes out on top. Having partied with movie stars to Playboy centerfolds, John is somehow always able to find someone’s inner geek. The simplest rules that John lives by is to have fun and doing what makes him happy. There’s no shame in being a geek. Play Halo, read Spider-Man and proudly display the whole series of Neon Genesis: Evangelion on your DVD rack. And most importantly, make sure to read his weekly comic book pull list reviews at The Flickcast.
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