Hey FIRSTers, I was nominated for the ALS Bucket Challenge. I know by now everyone has heard of this but if you haven’t you now have 24 hours to take the challenge or donate $100 to ALS. STEM is the answer to these extremely difficult problems. Please help this extremely worthy cause.
Even better, just donate and don’t waste a bunch of water/ice.
If you’re in the Indianapolis area, join us on September 27th as we walk in memory of my father, who was taken by ALS in May.
His team, “We’ll Fly”, pays homage to his hobby as a private pilot; the license plate that was on his 1923 T-Bucket and Corvette also read “I’LL FLY”.
Donations are also accepted through the same link.
Come on Cory! What’s the fun in that? That’s like saying, “don’t ride this roller coaster. Watch it on video. It’s the same thing!”
Do it AND donate.
That’s actually what you are supposed to do. Do the challenge and donate $25 or don’t and donate $100.
California friends, donate the $$ and save the H20.
I donated and took the challenge. I would not have without the challenge, reminding me what an important cause this is.
Theres the completely opposite stance. When I look at things like this, I look at $ raised per video submitted. ALS is doing a lot better than many other viral fundraisers.
I had no idea what ALS is. Now I know, and I thought some of the videos were cute/funny/creative so I donated. The huffington post article was a bit too skeptical in it’s tone and didn’t resonate with me personally
Some quotes from the Washington Post: “It’s been incredible,” said Erin Fleming, the group’s associate director. “We are somewhat shocked at how many people are ‘putting their money where their mouths are’ for this challenge — in our experience, it’s difficult for awareness campaigns to translate into dollars, but the ice bucket challenge has certainly succeeded on both fronts.”
“The ALS Association, the nation’s largest ALS charity, says it’s raised $1.35 million in the past two weeks, versus a paltry $22,000 in the same period last year. Project ALS, a New York-based non-profit that funds ALS research, told the Post it’s received nearly 50 times the donations it usually gets this time of year”
Living in CA, it’s completely irresponsible to be wasting water right now. Any amount counts. When viewed on a macro level, imagine how hard someone in a rural village in Africa or other third world countries would have to work just to get a 5 gallon bucket of clean water? The thought of making ice is probably not even comprehensible to them.
Amongst the people I see doing it on Facebook, I don’t see many that are doing the challenge and then saying they donated afterwards. I see a lot more people that seem to just be doing it because it’s the trendy thing to do and then call their friends out to do it too. Maybe they’re doing it and not telling people? But who is willing to self promote that they are doing the ice challenge but not that they donated money to a good cause?
And this is exactly why I won’t do it. I think we all know about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and if all the viral-video-sharers are doing their job correctly, we all know what ALS -is- from that slacktivist effort. (Note, that’s not always happening. Some are doing it right, others are just doing it for the likes. Not cool at all.)
Just make a donation, and try to spread actual information about the disease and how to help through your FB/Twitter channels. It’s a much better use of your time and resources.
(On a side note, your comment made me think: What do y’all think Dean would say about this colossal waste of water? Considering his biggest project is to bring clean water to those who don’t have it. Yes, shameless plug for Slingshot, I don’t care. Go see it if you can.)
How would it have gone viral? and how would we all know about it it? without the challenge. We have the luxury now that it has gone viral to not do the challenge and critique it. If people hadn’t done it and posted all over social media, I wouldnt know about ALS. Simple as that.
As for what you and Cory are bringing up about water waste: I get that its slightly irresponsible to dump a bucket of water on yourself. Use a cup full of water… its the sentiment and participation that matter. Most places in the US aren’t in a drought.
Comparing a bucket of water in New York to a bucket of water in Africa is just plain silly… i dont see that as a valid comparison at all.
You’re right - I should have added a ‘by now’ in there somewhere. It’s already gone viral, we all know what it is, now maybe it’s time to stop with the water dumping and move to just talking about ALS. I like your thoughts about a cup of water, though. That’s a bit less extreme. Still wasteful, and I think some people in developed countries don’t quite see what a charmed life we live as compared to other regions- but I won’t get into that right now.
(Please note, I’m talking in my post about the people who just post the water-dump without any mention of what ALS is, how to donate, or anything. That’s the slacktivist side of this that’s killing me. Some people are just throwing water on themselves without any demonstrated knowledge of why.)
Maybe it’s my background with family in medicine, but I truly didn’t think there were people out there who didn’t know what some of these major diseases are. TIL, or something like that. My apologies.
California sure is, though…
The world has a finite amount of fresh water. It all matters. Maybe not to us, but certainly it will to the generation that follows us.
)
But Koray n Libi how I sposta show off my beach body?
Watch Flow, and then go see Slingshot.
(No, actually, See it if you can. This is Dean’s other ‘big project’ besides FIRST and if we could all go support him in this, it’d mean the world.)
Isn’t the whole point of slingshot to create fresh water. If so, then there is not a finite amount of fresh water. Either way, the water on the earth is cycled through… I think I might be missing something… How are we somehow permanently consuming our fresh water?
Im not trying to get into an argument with you, but I disagree that this is a “waste” of water. I think its a pretty darn useful way of using water to raise awareness for something that I am realizing is very important, and something that I was completely in the dark about a month ago. Americans use 400 gal of water on average per day. I think there are other things we should cut back on before we cut back on using a few gallons to raise money for a deserving charity.
I would also like to second the suggestions to go see slingshot. Awesome movie if you can find a theater that’ll play it.
To your first point:
There’s plenty of water in the world. There’s not a lot of low-cost, clean, accessible water for people to drink. That’s the aim of Slingshot. It’s not just creating infinite water, it’s taking the dirty water that these areas have access to and making it clean. It’s a cycle.
Second point:
More screenings coming soon, so that will be an awesome thing. 
There are lots of noble causes out there to support, as well as amazing documentaries that chronicle them.
While I appreciate the bumps, let’s please stay on Wendy’s original topic in this thread. There is already a place to discuss Dean’s Slingshot.
My previous post linked to a place to make donations if you please; here is the whole ALS Association website.
Those of us directly affected thank you.