On most social media sites, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been dominating news feeds around the world.

This challenge was made to spread awareness and increase donations to research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS infects the neurons in the spine, which control muscle movement. As ALS progresses in a person’s body, that patient may no longer be able to move, and usually becomes paralyzed. With extensive research for new treatments, some patients have been able to recover from this disease.

People are nominated by their friends and family who already took the challenge or donated. If nominated, a person can either take the challenge by dumping a bucket of ice water on themselves, donate to the ALS foundation, or both. Taking a step further, many people have also donated money to the foundation and taken the challenge.

The foundation has used the power of social media to its advantage. Each person who takes the ice bucket challenge should use the commons hashtag, #IceBucketChallenge and #StrikeOutALS. By combining the concept of a challenge with the idea of sharing a video on a public platform, the foundation has gained more success in fundraising for ALS research this year than in the past years.

Celebrities and public figures such as Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, and Leonardo DiCaprio have been doused in ice water to support the cause. Whether to promote their image or to support a cause, these actors, models, artists, and businessmen have been accepting challenges from other celebrities or their fans. Some celebrities have even nominated their fans for this challenge, increasing the number of challenges and donations.

Students and faculty at the Upper School have also become a part of this challenge, and have shared their videos on both Instagram and Facebook. Bradley Stoll, Upper School math teacher, accepted the challenge and let his students drop a bucket of ice water on him at the end of the Matriculation ceremony.

While some students have accepted the challenge, other students have decided against participating in the ALS foundation’s awareness campaign because of the drought conditions in California.

“Wasting water is detrimental to our environment considering that California is an extreme drought, but it is still important to donate money to ALS,” Adele Li (11) said.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge gained its popularity during the summer, and has raised more than $88.5 million by mid-August.

To find out more about ALS or how to donate, visit alsa.org.