Impacts of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I found my written speech for Oral Communication presentation and decided to save a copy here for future references. For our first presentation, we decided on the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that everyone is talking, doing and posting about.
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A very good morning. I look at the camera, hold a bucket of ice water over head, tip it upside down, post the video on my social media and then nominate three others to do the same. Along the way, my nominees and I use the opportunity to donate to the ALS Association, a charity that fights amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a total neurodegenerative disease. Unless you've been living under an igloo, you know that the Ice Bucket Challenge has become not only the social media phenomenon but the new bench mark for how peer-to-peer fundraising can create massive impat. So, today, we are going to talk about the impacts of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Well, for one, we all know that ALS Ice Bucket challenge is a charity stunt to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The original idea was that when the gauntlet was thrown down in the ice bucket challenge, you either dump ice water over your head or donate $100 to ALS Association if you failed to do so within 24 hours. Millions of people have shivered and screamed while dumping buckets of ice over their heads and the sensation felt at that split of second gives them the idea of how those with ALS feel each and every day.

Since the first ice bucket fell in the name of ALS, the challenge has gone viral, inspiring nearly $100 million in donations to the ALS Association. A big Internet sensation like this naturally brings criticism. But there are reasons to why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is awesome. First and foremost, it raises money for the ALS Associations. Most people seem to be opting for both, donate and getting soaked. The bulk of money made from the ice bucket challenge will help offset the astronomical costs of living with the disease. The cost of an individual patient can be tens of thousands of dollars to a quarter million dollars in care per year. Power wheel chairs, gracing, respiratory equipments. We're not even talking about ventilators. We're talking about non-invasive things, so people can sleep at night.

As you can see from the slide, 27% of the funds are allocated for research. Research is another part of the funding equation to find new treatments for ALS and to increase the number of scientists working on ALS. As is the case for most rare diseases, progress in ALS research has been severely hamstrung by funding shortages. The funds allocate for the research has been identified as critical to finding cure and effective treatments for ALS.

 

The efficiency of the campaign, for one, is awe-inspiring. It encourages people to donate to charity in general especially younger generations. The power of social media and technology plays a large part in young people's fundraising efforts. In addition to the fundraising campaign's convenience, its popularity among friends and high profile celebritis plays a large role in the strength of the millennia's involvement. From Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg to talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, footballer Christiano Ronalso, singer Justin Timberlake and to our very own local celebrities, Lisa Surihani and supermodel Amber Chia, they have all been ice-bucketed. These high profile celebrity figures helped seed the idea that it is 'cool' to donate to charity.

It proves that the Ice Bucket Challenge has been the perfect blend of accessible, fun activity, understandable, compelling cause and networked social proof. In other words, it's something easy that people want to do. It encourages younger generations like us to become more engaged in charity while having fun. It is a win-win situation. This is also a step to build a stronger culture of generosity. 

Did you do the Ice Bucket Challenge?

Thank you for reading

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p/s: This is only the good part of the challenge (the part that I am responsible for). Others of the members are doing on the negative impact of the ice bucket challenge especially when people die from doing the challenge