The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Round 2

During the summer of 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge swept across social media. Videos of people freezing their heads and challenging their friends to do likewise popped up everywhere you looked on the internet.

On Friday night, the men who began the challenge, Pete Frates and Pat Quinn, relaunched the campaign at Fenway Park with the help of the Boston Red Sox. The whole team came on to the field and dumped buckets of ice water on one another. NESN is reporting that the Red Sox challenged the Los Angeles Dodgers, Red Sox Nation, and Zac Brown. Manager John Farrell expressed what it meant to the team to be involved in the ice bucket campaign.

“To be associated with the Frates family, to help bring attention to a devastating disease, we’re honored and proud to be part of that, and yet at the same time, we’ve been able to see firsthand the effects of (ALS), and it’s devastating. Pete has been incredibly brave and forthright in his involvement to bring attention to it. And to see how far that awareness has gone globally — because when we kicked it off, I think there were five other countries who were kicking theirs off at the same time around the globe — it’s pretty amazing what his initiative has done worldwide.”

Last summer celebrities such Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Gates, Emma Stone, Kermit the Frog, and Stephen King all got dumped on and threw out the challenge to their friends and family. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, others, including President Barack Obama, skipped the ice water dousing and decided to just make a donation to ALS charities.

The campaign was so successful that Forbes reports that more than $100 million was raised in 2014. Compare that to the $2.8 million raised by the ALS Association during the same time period in 2013 and the impact of the challenge is quite clear. For the doubters of the power of the ice bucket, fundraising consultant Jeff Schuck has this message.

“Look at the scoreboard. How can you argue about $100 million?”

So as you notice videos of people taking the challenge popping up and you are thinking, oh no here we go again, also remember the good that has come about from all these people getting drenched. You could also make a nice donation to an ALS charity because helping others always gives you a warm feeling inside, no matter how ice cold the water is.

Will you do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge this summer?

[Image by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images]