The Ice Bucket Challenge is an initiative of an ALS patient from America. By throwing a bowl of water and ice over yourself and sharing this via social media, you draw attention to the disease ALS. The purpose of this Ice Bucket Challenge is to draw attention to the ALS disease and donate to the ALS Foundation.
The disease ALS, what is ALS
The disease ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a disease that often starts with vague complaints such as clumsiness, difficulty speaking and difficulty walking. It can also cause tripping, choking and difficulty in closing buttons.
The most common symptoms of ALS are:
- Weakening muscles resulting in the failure of arms or legs.
- Stiffness, muscle cramps and loss of strength.
- Difficulty standing up, walking and turning.
- Reduction of speech and swallowing ability, resulting in pneumonia.
- Fear and gloom.
- Drooping of the head due to reduced functioning of the neck muscles.
- Difficulty breathing.
ALS is a relatively rare fatal disease that currently has no effective treatment. The cause of ALS is seen in a neurological area or a consequence of disturbed brain function. To support the diagnosis, there is an ALS center where people can go for a diagnosis or a second opinion
The ALS Foundation
In the Netherlands, the ALS Foundation was founded in 2005 to draw attention to the disease and symptoms of ALS. The objective of the ALS Foundation is to draw attention and recognition to the disease and to raise funds and donations to conduct scientific research into the causes of the disease ALS and into possible treatments for the disease.
The ALS Foundation is best known for its advertising campaign in which deceased ALS patients draw attention to the disease and to donate to the ALS Foundation.
The Ice Bucket Challenge: what is it and what are the rules
The Ice Bucket Challenge is an initiative to draw attention to the ALS disease via social media and to raise money through donations to the ALS Foundation.
With the Ice Bucket Challenge, the idea is to throw a bucket or container full of ice-cold water with ice over yourself while you film this and post it on YouTube.
The rules and objective of the Ice Bucket Challenge
People who have already completed the Ice Bucket Challenge can use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to challenge someone else to do the same within 24 hours; you can challenge up to three people. The idea is that the person who throws a bucket of ice-cold water over himself will donate 10 Euro to the ALS Foundation. If you don’t throw the bucket over yourself, you have to donate 100 Euro to the ALS Foundation.
You start your video as follows:
- I (your name) was nominated by (name of the person who nominated you).
- I accept the challenge and transfer 10 Euro or I decline the challenge and transfer 100 Euro.
- Then you throw the bucket over yourself.
- I now nominate the following people (maximum three).
- These nominees now have 24 hours to take on the challenge.
You then post this video on YouTube and nominate the people you choose via social media. A person can be nominated for the challenge a maximum of once.
Many celebrities in the Netherlands and internationally have already completed the Ice Bucket Challenge, including:
- Bill Gates
- Barack Obama (he refused and donated 100 US Dollars to the American ALS Foundation)
- Justin Timberlake
- Oprah Winfrey
- Lebron James
- Jimmy Fallon
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Jennifer Lopez
- Vincent Kompany
- Ed Sheeran
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Nigel de Jong
- Candy Dulfer (she did this live in the broadcast of talk show Knevel and Van Den Brink)
- Charlie Sheen (he threw $10,000 on himself instead of water and donated it to the American ALS Foundation).
- and many others
Criticism of the Ice Bucket Challenge
There is also criticism of the Ice Bucket Challenge, namely that many people participate in the Challenge and throw a bucket of ice over themselves and challenge someone else, but then do not donate to the ALS Foundation. The purpose of the Ice Bucket Challenge is not only to draw attention to ALS, but above all to raise money for the ALS Foundation to conduct scientific research to effectively treat this deadly disease.
