Ice Bucket Challentge

The lovely Madelyn Simone and I were looking at pictures on Facebook recently when she discovered her first Ice Bucket Challenge video. She watched with interest as her friend’s mother was drenched with ice water, and proceeded to watch the clip at least ten times, laughing uproariously every time the water splashed. “That’s funny, isn’t it, Madelyn?” I asked her. “No, Nana, that’s not funny – that’s hilarious,” was her response.

Since the beginning of August, the Ice Bucket Challenge has gone viral, moving from a random video on Facebook to a world-wide phenomena that has raised nearly one hundred million dollars for ALS research in less than one month. That compares to $2.6 million in donations during the same period last year. In case you boycott the internet or you’ve been holed up in a cave for a month and are clueless as to what this is, here’s what happens. When you receive an ice bucket challenge from a friend, you are expected to either dump a bucket of ice water over your head or write a one hundred dollar check to fund ALS research. Then, you get to challenge three people (or more) to do the same, and post a video of the ice dump and the challenge so that the world can watch you scream like a girl or take the frigid water without flinching.

It’s been an absolutely brilliant windfall for ALS research, especially as celebrities have gotten on board with great enthusiasm. Ben Affleck completed his challenge by tossing his wife into the pool, (to the great delight of his watching child and our Madelyn), while George W. Bush challenged his friend, Bill Clinton. I couldn’t find a video with Clinton answering the challenge, but I was able to watch New Jersey governor Chris Christie face his bucket stoically. Writer Stephen King did his wearing classic knee-length white socks, while Kermit the Frog, called out by WWE’s Vince McMahon, completed his challenge totally naked. Oprah Winfrey wins my best scream award, although Lebron’s video, with its beautiful ocean view, raised the shriek meter a notch or two as well. But celebrity involvement notwithstanding, the real key to its success is the challenge between friends, with a twenty-four hour deadline to take the plunge or write the check (or both).

Watching this sensation unfold, I’ve often wondered, how do we decide how to direct our charitable donations? The ice bucket challenge is a great gimmick, and no one can argue that ALS research isn’t a valuable cause. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is horrific in what it does to the body, and there currently is no cure. But what about the pink-ribboned cancer needs, or the community-wide local United Way, or the scourge of cystic fibrosis, a battle faced by my friend’s grandchildren and another friend’s daughter? Are they less worthy or in need of our support?

I also wonder how this financial boon will be managed by the ALS Association. In early August of this year, they awarded $3.5 million in grants for research, which funded twenty-one research projects. Now that same group has thirty times as much cash. How should they spend all the additional money pouring into their coffers? Can they set up an endowment so the funds will last longer than the melting ice? Or should they dive head first into searching out new research possibilities? That might be more difficult than it sounds at first hearing, as there may not be enough qualified researchers prepared to move in that direction immediately. Do they even have enough people to open the water-stained envelopes stuffed with checks?

When you do the math in this pyramid-like scheme, it’s only a matter of time before nearly every person in the world will be challenged at least once, and the popular ones a hundred times. I’m quietly hoping that like the streaking craze that took off in the early 70s, the Ice Bucket Challenge will be a fad whose days are numbered, preferably before I get called out. This is definitely one time when I don’t want to hear the name Nana from the lips of the lovely Madelyn Simone.