Ice Ice Baby

Last Friday I was standing on the platform at the King Street metro, waiting for a train. I decided to pass the time by checking Facebook (what else?). Actually, I had just taken this beautiful photo and was inspired to share it.

I'd been staring at the George Washington Masonic Temple, surrounded by the gorgeous evening sky, thinking to myself "Why have I never gone in there?" I was in the process of posting the photo on Facebook when I noticed that I'd been tagged in another post by one of my friends.

When I opened the post I discovered that I'd been challenged to dump ice water on my head in the name of ALS. I had heard about this ice bucket thing earlier in the week and had wondered what it was all about. Now all of a sudden I found myself standing on the platform of the metro, reading this post and finding myself overcome with emotion, as so often happens when a combination of thoughts of my dad, ALS and a beautiful night sky all converge on me at the same time. I realized that my eyes were quickly filling with tears and I pulled my sunglasses over my face before I completely lost in in front of the hundreds of commuters and tourists who surrounded me. As I stared back at the Masonic Temple and that mesmerizing sky I thought "Yes! I'll do this! Ice bucket challenge, here I come!"

When I got home later that evening I couldn't contain my excitement. Ok everyone! I announced. Tomorrow we are doing the ice bucket challenge. I'm dumping ice water on my head and posting the video online. I'm spreading the word about ALS and raising donations for our Walk to Defeat ALS team. Who's with me?

John was skeptical at first, wanting to know how this was going to help our cause. Jack seemed agreeable in a teenager sort of way. Ella was most enthusiastic, unexpectedly piping up "I'll do it with you!" The ice bucket challenge was on!

So here's what we did. Ella and I did ours first and then we challenged John and Jack to do it too, in addition to various other friends and family. We donned our ALS Walk t-shirts, filled our beer buckets with ice water, stated our case and then let the ice water fly. The following day John and Jack did the same, along with countless celebrities, athletes, people living with ALS, ALS advocates, and lots of regular people who either are or are not directly affected by ALS but wanted to get in on the action.

I'll just say one thing. That water was COLD!!!

The whole point of dumping ice water over our heads was not to make a funny video. The whole point was to help spread awareness of the awful disease that took my dad away from us and also to boost donations to our Walk to Defeat ALS team.

ALS took this strong, healthy man with a killer tan and mad guitar and piano skills . . . .

2009

and caused him to lose the ability to speak, to need a walker to walk short distances, a neck collar to hold his head up and a BIPAP machine to help him breathe at night . . .

2011

If you are reading this - please help us make this challenge worthwhile by donating! Click on the link below to access our team page - every little bit helps. You can click on any walker's name to make a donation. And if you're feeling really adventurous, I challenge all my blog readers to take the ice bucket challenge themselves. If you do so - be sure to share our team page with your friends :)

Click here to donate to our team the Legeckis Wave!