I remember when the Ice Bucket Challenge didn't swallow my news feed whole. That was the days when cat gifs and sorority squats filled my newsfeed. 

Then the internet phenomenon hit. At first it slowly lingered in, but then it seemed as if every other video as I scrolled down Instagram was one of my friends dumping buckets of ice water on their heads. Now everyone from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Robert Downey Jr. to former President George W. Bush are participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

At first I was like many of you-- I was annoyed by the constant amounts of videos that seemed to be posted just for likes or favorites. I had no clue what it was for, and why in the world people were dumping buckets, trash cans, and coolers of the questionable liquid that is Muncie water (if you go to Ball State, you know what I mean) all over the place. 

At first, I thought the Ice Bucket Challenge was a way to gain Internet popularity. I had no idea what ALS was, and none of the videos I had seen explained what it was or why it was so important. So I finally got curious and did some research. What I found more or less made me feel like a bit of a hypocrite. Upworthy.com shared an inspiring video by Anthony Carbajal about the terrifying disease that is ALS. (watch the video here: http://www.upworthy.com/the-last-ice-bucket-challe...)

For those who still don't know about ALS, which stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, it is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. According to the ALS Foundation website, the disease affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, which then moves to the motor neurons throughout the body causing paralysis in the later stages and eventually death.  

The video by Carbajal shows his mother, who suffers from the disease, bed ridden and not being able to feed herself. As I further looked into the disease, I saw people getting to the point where every day movements such as lifting their head or holding a pencil would be too painful, and eventually would lose the ability to do so. As a person who has an acute form of arthritis herself, this seemed to hit close to home to me. This was very much like the disease that has affected my family for so long, only scarier.

People dump the cold water on themselves to feel what a person with ALS would feel. The ice water is supposed to let a person feel what one would feel like with ALS as a cold and somewhat painful sensation runs throughout the body after dumping the freezing cold ice water on the body.

Even after finally being nominated and dumping a trash can full of water on my face, I still donated to the ALS foundation. Why you may ask? While this Ice Bucket Challenge is a great way to get recognition out there and show how great of philanthropists we all are wanting to do better in the world, we need to do more. The point of this challenge is that there is a disease out there that isn't getting enough face time as others, and that the more money and word spread about it the more research that can be done to try and cure, or at least slow down, the progression of ALS.

So bring out the bags of ice, and fill up the buckets and coolers. But I dare you to donate as well. Even if it is a couple dollars, (I could only afford 20 bucks) it goes to a cause that is determined to make some progress in reaching a cure.

To read more on ALS, what the ALS association does, and where the proceeds to the ALS Association go to, go to http://www.alsa.org

To donate, go to https://secure2.convio.net/alsa/site/Donation2;jse...