[g_sawchuk]

Just going to share my two cents here, because I feel that they're needed.
I see the intention of this project. It's to raise awareness, and many would argue that it has been beyond successful in this aspect. However, the truth is, it has not. I guarantee you, three quarters of the people who actually do the challenge don't even know what ALS is. I didn't know what it was after seeing nearly 200 videos of people dumping ice cold water over their heads. But one Google search was much more effective. In one google search, I completely understood what ALS was. It's therefore proven that watching 200 people make a fool of themselves is such an uneffective way of raising awareness for this awful disease.

The truth is, most people aren't even doing this with the intention of awareness. It's really just another ridiculous bandwagon, like twerking, or weird hashtags. People do it to be in a "clique" and do it to try and seem "cool". I appreciate those who do it with the intention of awareness, and I really wish their efforts really were raising true awareness.

Now, an effective way that this could work would be by requiring people who do the challenge to describe the disease in the same post as their video in their social media post. That way knowledge of the disease would spread, therefore creating meaningful awareness. I strongly recommend for everyone to choose to donate, but please, don't make a fool of yourselves just to jump in the bandwagon, and don't bother wasting all that water. It's like you're taunting those who cannot have water. If we took all the water dumped on each and every one of you, and gave it to the people who can't even get a cup of clean water everyday, I think it would do a lot more good.

In short, this is why I shall not be dumping a waste of ice cold water over my head.