my great grandmother had ALS, ive seen first hand what it can do to someone, and it's sad. so by all means, if you want to donate to this charity, please do! but first, read my top 5 annoyances with this entire thing.
thing #1 that bothers me: some people explain the rules, fully. which is to (and i may even be wrong, who knows, but im usually always right) pour a bucket of ice water on your head AND donate $10, should you accept the challenge. if you decline the challenge, you are to donate $100. i've only seen about 2 videos that have explained this. others are just pouring water on their heads and nominating their friends to do the same. i also have not seen one video where there is a link to donate. where am i going? which organization? who is this for?
thing #2 that bothers me: i get that this is for charity, is for a good cause, and with all the negativity in the world its nice to see people donating and pouring water on their head, whatever. and maybe i'm just being cynical, (see above about me usually be right though) but if someone posted to your wall and just called you out to donate $10 without pouring water on your head, or being able to tell your friends/family to do something silly, would you still do it? my point is - are you doing this challenge because you actually give a shit about ALS and finding a cure and raising awareness or is it because you've been called out on a public forum and cant say no or is it that you've already been thinking of who you want to see pour water on their head?
thing #3 that bothers me: people posting a status or commenting about all the good that this challenge has done and statistics they've found. all of a sudden everyone is a journalist and they spend their time collecting data and crunching numbers. did you do this research before or after the water dump? did you make sure you were actually making a difference? and to ease my own mind, i went straight to the source. i emailed the marketing team at the ALSA and asked them straight up if this challenge was doing anything. and straight from the horses mouth, it is. according to them this time last year they only raised around $22K and this year they're over $1mil. so kudos, you sopping wet people have made a difference. ( i like to get my information straight from the source before i spit numbers)
thing #4 that bothers me: any other organization from here on out, that tries to pull something like this will not garner nearly as much attention, and will be seen as a rip off ALS #icebucketchallenge. and what i mean by this is that if tomorrow i video tape myself eating a jalapeno (i know that's worse than pouring water on your head, but you get the point), and then dare 3 friends to do the same or donate to the american cancer society, no one will do it. in fact it wont go viral. it wont go anywhere. you think that if next month, someone comes up with another idea, or even the same idea, all of these celebrities will do it? no. will you do it? no. if i started pouring water on my head tomorrow and asking for donations and to raise awareness for Parkinson's disease, would all the same people who did it for ALS do it? no, which leads me to #5...
thing #5 that bothers me: if you are a charitable person, you do not need a soap box to make donations. i do not make sure the guy behind me at rite aide sees when i donate my change to hungry kids. i do not try to educate everyone at the breast cancer walk on how many lives were saving by walking and donating. i do not try to pretend like suddenly i am an expert on whatever charity i am donating to, just because i have read a pamphlet or have done a google search. along with the good this challenge has done, it has also given everyone a stage to declare their good, the look at how awesome i am complex of the internet is in full swing.so if you have done the challenge and not donated, you're basically an idiot.
if you have done the challenge AND donated, excellent.
if you have not done the challenge and just written a $100 check (which i am skeptical how many of you actually send them in, i mean i can write a check for $100, tape it, and then throw that shit away...but i digress), i salute you.
keep raising awareness and keep donating, but please stop flooding (pun intended) my news feed with these videos -__-
and since everyone is a philanthropist, here are some links to donate to a few other charities:
http://alsa.org/ - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association
https://donate.cancer.org/index - American Cancer Society
http://www.asia-spinalinjury.org/ - American Spinal Injury Association
https://www.michaeljfox.org/ - The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson Research
