Social media crazes constantly take the Internet by storm—from selfies to twerking, these fads tend to leave nothing but annoyance in their wake. However, the newest one may end up having a different effect.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is the latest fad to flood the internet. People are challenged by friends and family to dump a bucket of ice water on their head in order to raise money and awareness for Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. At first, this may seem like the most ridiculous craze to hit social media yet, but when taking a closer look, it may actually be helping quite a bit.

It all began when former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, of Boston, Mass., promoted this challenge and helped spread it throughout social media. Frates has been suffering from ALS since 2012.

According to the ALS Association, from July 29 to Aug. 21, the association has received a total of  $41.8 million in donations. During the same period in 2013, the association only received $2.1 million. These new donations have come from existing donors, as well as more than 739,000 new donors.

Maureen Barber Hill, president and CEO of the St. Louis chapter of the ALS Association, said this movement is quite phenomenal.

“People with ALS and the ALS community nationwide are benefiting from this outpour of generosity,” Barber Hill said. “We look forward to using these donations and making more concrete plans for the future.”

Barber Hill said while the ALS Association provides many programs and services to patients at no cost, living with a diagnosis is an expensive journey and could cost a patient up to $250,000 per year. This money will help many unfunded programs, counseling, clinical and in-home care programs as well as research efforts.

“It can take up to 15 years and $1 billion to develop one new drug [for ALS],” Barber Hill said. “These donations provide an enormous lift in that area.”

However, not everyone feels this challenge is doing more good than not. Junior mass communications major Joseph Vollbracht, of Clayton, Ill., said the Ice Bucket Challenge is getting out of hand.

“It started off as a cute, innocent way to raise money for a good cause and have fun nominating friends and family,” Vollbracht said. “But once the media started picking it up, people were blogging about it and reposting videos constantly. It began to sort of take over the social media platform, and that is the point where many people, myself included, got annoyed with the challenge.”

Vollbracht said he was challenged and decided not to participate or donate to the cause.

“I felt as though this challenge had become less about the charitable organization that is mentioned in the title and more about people just hopping on the bandwagon and posting a video of them dumping water on themselves,” Vollbracht said. “The whole point of the challenge is to donate to charity, yet person after person chose to avoid donating by soaking themselves in ice water. I see no point whatsoever in doing that.”

Senior math major Kaitlin McElroy, of Bunker Hill, said the challenge is great because it has raised so much awareness.

“I participated in the challenge to continue spreading this message,” McElroy said. “There is currently no cure for this awful disease, so this is a great opportunity for people to help out in a way that’s accessible to almost everyone.”

Whether to raise awareness of this cause or to merely gain attention, this challenge is sweeping the nation and making a change in the ALS community.

Barber Hill said the association is grateful for the donations and support; however, there is still more to be done in terms of finding treatment and a cure.

“After the ice melts, we hope these new donors will continue to be engaged and that this will begin a new relationship,” Barber Hill said.

To find out more about donating to the ALS Association, visit alsa.org.

Caitlin Grove

Via alestlelive.com