The exceptionally viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge already raised a whopping $15.6 million worth of donations to the ALS Association and its national affiliates, in just over a month. Business bigwigs like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and celebrity icon Oprah Winfrey even joined the challenge.
In an interview with TIME, ALS Association President Barbara Newshouse stated that the support will in fact change a lot of things in the association. "It's huge. It's a game changer for the ALS Association," she said.
The now viral ALS Ice Bucket challenge started as a game created by a group of friends on Facebook. Golfer Chris Kennedy from Sarasota, Florida got nominated by his friend to do the Ice Bucket Challenge.
At that time, the challenge was not bound to any charity, instead people who got nominated can choose any charity for their donations. Kennedy chose to donate to ALS because a family member was suffering from ALS. He posted his video on July 15, the first time that the Ice Bucket Challenge was associated with ALS.
From a small community of friends, the viral challenge spread like wildfire on the Internet. Soon enough, celebrities like Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Hugh Jackman and Ben Affleck; music icons like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga; sports legends like David Beckham and LeBron James; and other influential people all dared to get drenched with ice water. They did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenege and at the same time nominated a lot more people to raise awareness, participate and donate to the cause.
An overwhelming $96,000 was raised by the campaign over a single weekend - compared to the $50, 000 that was raised around the same time last year.
The charities that would receive money from the donations stated that a huge portion would go into research and filling the organization with more people to help in combatting the disease.
ALS, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
There is no known cure for ALS at the moment.
