Unbelievably, I’ve been seeing some people on Tumblr criticizing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge as “just another stupid celebrity stunt” or as “shameful wasting of water” (um…seriously??). One person even asked – after ripping on the Challenge – “What is ALS?” (As if we’re not slumming around on the greatest information system in the history of the world — this little thing called the Internet — right now. If you don’t know what something is, please, click a few times and look it up!) I really wish folks would educate themselves before shooting their mouths off.
I won’t pontificate on what ALS is (please do look it up if you’re unsure), but to those of us who have lost friends or relatives to it, what the Ice Bucket Challege is doing — raising both money AND awareness — is not a “stupid stunt.” It may be a PR stunt, sure, but it’s one that has raised more awareness about this disease than just about anything else in history (one challenge that ALS researchers face is that the disease is just rare enough that there’s relatively not a lot of money being thrown at finding treatment or a cure, so they do rely a lot on private donors and fund-raising…).
According to TheWrap.com, in a story about the Ice Bucket Challenge: “You can’t argue with results. The ALS Association reports that it has received $4 million between July 29 and Aug. 12, compared to $1.12 million during the same time period last year, and added 70,000 new donors. ‘We have never seen anything like this in the history of the disease,’ said Barbara Newhouse, president and chief executive of the ALS Association. ‘We couldn’t be more thrilled with the level of compassion, generosity and sense of humor that people are exhibiting as they take part in this impactful viral initiative.’”
I will bet that most if not ALL of the celebrities who participate in the Challenge are making monetary donations to ALSA.org as well as getting doused with water to add to the viral publicity.
And, seriously, a few buckets of water — even in California – is not going to make a huge difference in the water shortage. (Insert eye-roll from this Californian…)
(Even so, Robert Downey Jr. was careful enough to recycle his (X).)
If you’ve seen some uncalled-for criticism, too, please feel free to reblog this.