That's What Makes the World Go 'Round!

Dear Reader,


Bonus points go to whoever can name what movie today's song title comes from. Comment below to submit your answers. Today I wanted to give you an update on the great "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge" that is taking the internet by storm. What started as a small campaign to raise awareness and funds for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) has grown and caused thousands of people to dump ice or ice water over their heads. That is how it works: one person nominates another to the challenge. That nominated person then has 24 hours to either donate $100 to the ALS foundation or have a bucket of ice dumped over their head. I would like to think most people are both accepting the ice bucket challenge and donating to charity. I won't judge, though.

With all of this publicity that the ALS campaign has received, it made me think of other fads that people participated in during the 1920s and 1930s. Did you know that people regularly participated in dance marathons, goldfish swallowing, telephone pole sitting during those years? The main motivation for these crazy activities was fame and money. Of course a lot of people were poor during that time because of the Great Depression, so they would do just about anything for money. People would dance for days (The rule was that they couldn't sit or lie down), swallow live goldfish (The world record is 300 in one stitting, according to Harvard Crimson), and sit on small platforms atop telephone poles for weeks.


Thus, into the history books goes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge alongside these other phenomenon. How these activities come to life is something most people never understand. They work though. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has raised more than 88.5 million dollars when I checked to write this post.

Here's my story of accepting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I knew someone would nominate me eventually, so I got ready to be original and sit in a bucket of ice water while explaining the challenge and more about ALS. The goal was to provide entertainment while informing people at the same time. However, I came back to the original challenge when I was challenged the day I was going to travel to Provo for an entire weekend (I have been living in Salt Lake for a week). My weekend started Friday morning when I caught a train to Provo. Around 2 PM, I got an email saying that I had been tagged on Facebook in a video. I looked at the video and found that my friend Cami had nominated me for the challenge. Well, I couldn't very well do the challenge that afternoon or night because I was at the Missionary Training Center from 6 to 8 and I had to work my overnight custodial job at 10 PM. On top of not having a lot of time, I only had one change of clothes...which happened to be my slacks, shirt and tie. So I did the challenge in style at 2:30 AM while I was on break at work.

You get the idea. It was cold and I donated to the ALS foundation afterword. You can too! Just visit alsa.org to find out more about ALS and donate to the foundation. Thanks to all who have already donated!