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ALS Ice Bucket Challenge accepted at Foothill High

Money raised for getting drenched goes to a good cause.

VIDEO and WORDS
By Stephanie Parsons
fhspress.com Editor-in-Chief
Posted September 3, 2014

People may think that the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is just another stupid challenge someone on the Internet made up, but that is completely wrong. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is to spread awareness for a deadly disease.

Now a lot of people have seen the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and many have done the challenge, but a lot of people don’t understand what the challenge is about. This challenge is supposed to stimulate the feeling of how everyone that has ALS feels every day.

When the cold water hits your muscles, they get a weird sensation, and that’s how people feel every day. The challenge is either done in the yard, driveway or at parks. This is a great way to help bring awareness to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

This muscle disease, so far, has no cure or treatments. ALS is a disease of the parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement, meaning the nerve cells that control the muscle cells are gradually lost. So once you lose them, your muscles just gradually become nonfunctional.

ALS is also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease in tribute to the baseball player that had died, due to ALS, in 1941.

People of any age can get ALS, even though it is more common in men by their late 50’s. Luckily this disease cannot be caught or transmitted human to human, but the cause of this disease is still a mystery.

Everyone’s story is different and there is no set date on how long the disease will take. Sometimes it will take three-to-five years and maybe even longer. It all depends on the person and how bad they have the disease.

How you do the challenge is quite easy, at least I think so. Someone has to nominate you to do the challenge but you can always donate whenever. What you do is, you get a bucket full of cold water and fill it up with ice. Let that sit so it can get even colder. Once it is pretty cold, then you dump it on your head. Then you nominate three people and you are done.

In my case of doing the ice bucket challenge, my four-year-old cousin nominated me so I couldn’t back down. After I had the water dumped onto my head, I jumped into a cold pool. I had nominated my best friend, Reneé Williamson and my two cousins, Mitchell Lensing and Kyle Schroedle. I was able to be there to watch Reneé get water dumped on her.

It was a great experience, even though our state is in a drought. This challenge is here to show awareness for a disease that so far is incurable and people who are affected by this disease must be very hopeful to find a cure for this disease.

steph.parsons@fhspress.com

FOOTHILL HIGH SCHOOL fhspress.com SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

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