As you’ve probably seen, people have been dumping ice wate over their heads, in an effort to raise awareness/$$ for ALS.
Would you take the challenge?
I’d be afraid the ice water might *cause *ALS.
I’ve been the target of an auctioned-off pie in the face…three times.
Actually, all kinda fun. Damn messy (and whipped cream goes rancid in only a few minutes, when you’re wearing it.) But the clowning around, and the false drama, and the taunting – “You won’t hit me with that pie because you’re scared…” SPLAT! – are all tremendous fun.
I’ve not seen it as an ALS thing, but as a general charitable giving thing. There was a spell a while back where people on FB were challenging each other to dump cold water on themselves and donate $10 or not dump the water and donate $100. Oh, and you had to post the video on FB and issue your challenges in the comments for the video, to make sure as many people as possible knew you donated a whole whopping $10 to charity. :rolleyes:
I’m not a fan of “ooooh, everyone look at me, aren’t I so generous?” charitable giving, and I’m certainly no fan of pressuring/guilting people into doing stuff, so I’m pretty thoroughly against the whole mess. My canned response is that peer pressure is lame and only losers engage in it.
How is dumping cold water on one’s head supposed to raise awareness for ALS? Got a link or anything?
Okay, that’s not the best way to do it. I’d set it up with one bucket of ice water and an empty donation bucket and tell people that when there was a hundred dollars of donations in the second bucket, I’d dump the first bucket on my head.
If it was a ton of money for charity I’d do it. For $100 or so, I’d give the money myself to avoid the experience
I’m generally against the humiliate yourself for charity concept and I’m not that keen on the crazy stunts for charity idea, but then again, so far nobody’s made an offer. Pouring ice water over your head wouldn’t be fun, but it’d be over in a second and wouldn’t have any long term effects, so yes, I’d do that for a sufficient donation. I wouldn’t organize an event where people do it because it seems kinda stupid.
I’d do it for Andy’s Liquor Supply.
So now, apparently, there is a new thing called a “fire challenge.” Much, much more stupid and potentially disastrous.
I don’t see the point. Be brave (and stupid) so that you don’t have to fork out $100 to a charity? I already don’t have to fork out to a charity if I don’t want to.
If I want to support a charity I donate money to it. If not, then I don’t. Stupid stunts like this, or shaving one’s head, or wearing specially coloured socks or…just demean the charity in my mind.
Sure; why not. It’s not a big deal for me; see, I’m a Polar Bear.
Ocean temp was 36.3° on New Year’s Day when I fully submerged.
The plunge I did for charity in late Jan it was snowing. After coming out of the water (wearing only sandals & a bathing suit) I flopped on the ground to make snow angels. (which brought new meaning to the term “snow balls”. :o)
Most of the athletes doing this seem to be donating to the cause as well, they’re just having fun with it. Nothing wrong with that. (Besides, here in Pittsburgh right now it’s hot as hell. Might as well cool off!)
Me too. There was a story once where some waitress shaved her head for cancer (I’m still not clear on how it benefited cancer, cancer patients, cancer research, whatever; I presume there was some kind of auction, or donation thing, but I don’t see why people couldn’t just donate money without having to watch a woman shave her head). Anyway, her boss, who wasn’t told about the stunt ahead of time, told her she either had to take a leave of absence, or wear a wig to work until her hair grew back. Everyone I talked to, including people on another message board, were absolutely horrified at the boss’s response, because it was for cancer! Did the boss hate people with cancer? What would he do if the waitress was on chemo, and lost her hair because of that? would he force her to wear a wig then? OMG! someone even called him a Nazi.
I couldn’t believe how much hate there was for the boss. If he was losing business, because, for whatever reason, people were uncomfortable with a bald waitress, he didn’t have to take a stand, especially because there was no real reason for her to be bald. Bosses can have rules about employee appearance: they can tell them they can’t have Mohawks, or hair that is a color that doesn’t occur in nature, or that people with hair past a certain length have to wear it pinned up. The “it’s for cancer” didn’t carry any water for me, because it wasn’t as though $10,000 magically materialized because she shaved her head.
I’m not even sure how this wasn’t perceived as making fun of people on chemo.
A guy in Iowa did something similar: he jumped into a icy pond for charity–but broke his neck because the pond was too shallow:
http://www.ottumwaeveningpost.com/9425/72160/a/man-breaks-neck-doing-plunge-for-charity
They are raising money for him now:
It’s usually perceived as sharing the woe with chemo patients. I know two cases, personally, and more in the media, of people who have shaved their heads so as to be closer to their friends or family members who lost hair from chemo.
(I once participated in a university “wheel-chair experience” where I was in a wheelchair for a couple hours, getting used to opening doors, etc. It was intended as consciousness-raising, and no one took it as making fun.)
Exactly this.
Charities do this because it works. I appreciate the community spirit and the efforts, but I’d far rather people just pay taxes to a government that is generous in funding research and relief efforts for those groups that can pass a rather more rigorous benchmark than “my daughter is dumping a bucket of icewater on her head for it.”
This Jezebel story says the challenge is largely about awareness, and I’m of the mind that treating raising awareness as an end in and of itself is a big waste of time. Organizations need money and volunteers and things, and while you do need people to know you’re out there, I’ve always felt it makes more sense to target the right people instead of trying to tell everybody. And ALS is not exactly unheard-of.
It’s not that I don’t care about ALS, but pouring ice water over my head for awareness makes as little sense as painting my toenails for leukemia awareness.