Ice Bucket Challenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease) and encourage donations to research. The challenge was co-founded by Pat Quinn and Pete Frates;^[1] it went viral on social media during July–August 2014.^[2][3] In the United States, many people participated for the ALS Association, and in the United Kingdom, many people participated for the Motor Neurone Disease Association,^[4] although some individuals opted to donate their money from the Ice Bucket Challenge to other organizations.^[5]

The challenge encourages nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.^[6]

On August 1, 2015, a group of ALS organizations in the United States, including the ALS Association, Les Turner ALS Foundation, and ALS Therapy Development Institute, re-introduced the Ice Bucket Challenge for 2015 to raise further funds with the intention of establishing it as an annual occurrence. It failed to raise the same viral attention as the 2014 event, which raised over $115M^[7] worldwide for the disease.^[8] However some people—including celebrities and various government officials around the world—have followed through with the intention of a yearly event by continuing to perform the challenge again each subsequent summer.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}