Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, I’m sure you’ve seen countless people – friends, coworkers & celebrities alike – dousing themselves in buckets of ice cold water & then uploading the videos to their various social media accounts & challenging their friends in order to raise awareness for ALS. So when Kes & I saw the ice bucket challenge begin to make its rounds in each of our facebook feeds, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone called us out.

When our friend Natalie finally did – someone who participates in the ALS Walk every year & who has been personally touched by ALS having recently lost a friend to the disease – we were happy to not only accept her challenge but to donate to the cause as well. And so…here is our video:

The #IceBucketChallenge phenomenon has gone incredibly viral over the last several weeks and for those of you watching all of the crazy videos and enjoying a few laughs along with the rest us but who still really don’t know what ALS is all about, here are a few facts:

• Two to three Canadians a day die of ALS
• Approximately 3,000 Canadians currently live with ALS
• In at least 90% of cases, ALS strikes individuals with no family history of the disease
• Between 5-10% have a familial form of ALS, so 2 or more of their family members have it
• ALS can strike anyone, regardless of age, sex or ethnic origin
• The usual age of onset is between 55 and 65, but some have been younger than 20
• Nearly 90% of people with ALS died within 5 years of diagnosis. While some live longer, others die within a few short months
• ALS affects the whole family
• ALS is a costly disease – emotionally, physically, and financially.

I, like the rest of the world have been watching my share of Ice Bucket Challenge videos, but when I came across this one it stuck with me. It’ll definitely make you laugh but even more important it might change your perspective on all the silly videos you see making the rounds online. This is why we’re all doing this. Please make sure you watch all the way to the end.

To donate to ALS Canada please visit ALS.ca or you can do so on our ALS fundraising page:
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=2542261&langPref=en-CA
And remember – you don’t need to dump cold water on your head to donate to charity. 😉