Ice bucket nonsense

Slab

Slab

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Am I the only one who thinks this is a load of tosh

I can see how it started and the good intention behind it but even on the short time its been around it has descended into nothing more than a childish dare & a mild form of extortion (with dubious charitable benefits)

I was challenged/dared at work yesterday and now being judged because I said I wouldn't do it or donate to the charity. Even demands to know why not? (as if I even have to explain myself)

I fully expect the next charity fund raiser to challenge me to stab myself in the hand with a fork or give £xx to charity!
 
The way I see it is it has raised a stupid amount of money for a charity people may not usually think about. Surely that can only be a good thing? Fair enough that people don't agree with it but I'm all for helping most charities where I can.
 
Jon321 said:
The way I see it is it has raised a stupid amount of money for a charity people may not usually think about. Surely that can only be a good thing? Fair enough that people don't agree with it but I'm all for helping most charities where I can.
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Fraid that's part of my issue with this dare challenge

Just because I don't agree with it, it doesn't mean I'm against helping charities which is how its perceived if you don't take part
 
3x lads have done it at work that I know of, 2 of them have not donated to charity. Surely that defeats the object of the real meaning behind the ice bucket challenge.
 
Well, it is a meme driven by the social media and ease of putting your stuff on the net, and like all such memes, it gets tired quickly. Fair enough way of promoting a good cause, and ALS is certainly that, a devastating neurological disorder with no good treatment. Once these things reach the point where you only see the stunt and don't remember what it is for, then it is on the way out.
 
It's like Children In Need, Comic Relief, coffee mornings, jumble sales, sponsored walks, sponsored bungee jumps etc: They are all completely tedious but raise a tonne of cash for worthy charities. That makes it worthwhile.

Take a soaking, pay your £3 and stop your moaning.
 
It's a very clever idea to harness the power of social media to raise money. And also has tapped into the fact that that many people like to be show off on social media and like to be seen to be doing something good. So fair play to it.

As with all these things there can be the feeling that you are pressured into it, and actually you have charities that are more dear to your heart that you'd rather donate to. But it seems to have slightly mutated where you donate to any charity from what I've seen.

Although I do laugh sometimes where you see these Yanks doing it on Florida in the middle of summer, where an ice bucket may well be a slightly pleasant experience in those temperatures. Try doing it on a wet and windy night in November in the UK, then we'll see how keen you are to publicise how you do a lot of work for charidee.;)
 
From what I heard a few days back, the ALS (motor neurone) charity was surviving on donations around $70,000 a month. This ice bucket nonsense has raised something like $48 million in a month. That can only be a good thing in helping to fight a rather nasty illness.

There are of course many other worthwhile charities out there, some of which have also taken up the icebucket challenge as a way of raising funds. You are free to choose whether to take the challenge or not, there will always be those who don't want to do this but given it takes a couple of minutes, shouldn't be harmful (unless you don't think about the process - checkout the fails on youtube), just choose a charity and go with it.
 
One of my cousins is a crofter - one of his lads filled up the front 'scoop' of their 'digger' with very cold water and tipped that over his mate. Now that's a soaking worthy of the challenge! Rather with Slab's OP otherwise - I struggle a bit to separate the 'look at me' aspect of this sort of thing from the worthy cause being supported.
 
Ive seen a lot of these over the last week. i walk the dogs sometimes though the islands in the Ness and this week the two times ive been though, i've witnessed at least 3 groups a night doing the ice bucket challenge. Last night i asked two lots what charity they were doing it for and got blank looks!! one of which was 3, 20 Yo girls in skimpy under garments ;)
 
Slab said:
Am I the only one who thinks this is a load of tosh

I can see how it started and the good intention behind it but even on the short time its been around it has descended into nothing more than a childish dare & a mild form of extortion (with dubious charitable benefits)

I was challenged/dared at work yesterday and now being judged because I said I wouldn't do it or donate to the charity. Even demands to know why not? (as if I even have to explain myself)

I fully expect the next charity fund raiser to challenge me to stab myself in the hand with a fork or give £xx to charity!
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You are definitely not the only one.......not a great fan of people who take charity challenges without adding any real benefit to the charity.
 
It has done a lot of good and it isn't just ALS that has benefiited as some have given to charities of their choice instead. In some ways it's helped bring people together via things like FB with friends challenging friends etc and it has done a lot of good.

If you don't want to do it, then don't. I don't see anything wrong with that especially if you have charities of your own you prefer to support without the need to chuck cold water over you. However it's a bit of fun, and if you get nominated, maybe just go with the flow but for pity's sake if you do, make sure you cough up. I wouldn't ridicule and think any different of anyone passing it up though and it says more about those getting annoyed because someone won't do it than the person themselves
 
Couldn't agree more, with OP all the way. Am totally fed up with it, and thought it was a load of tosh right from the start. Like a bunch of sheep out there. What's next? Throw yourself in front of a bus challenge?
 
Good to hear all the views

Like most I've done a few childish things in the past in the name of charity and like most I give to charities when I want to and maybe it's just the close relationship this particular one has with the world of social media which means that there is a backlash of sorts if I choose to decline

The more I learn on it the more I hear about the event itself taking over from the fund raising
 
I cant help thinking though that in days of yore folks would be sponsored to have a bucket of ice water tipped over them

one bucket, 20 sponsors, jobs a good un

This just smacks of that crazy necknominate stunt but under a guise of charity
 
To date it's raised just shy of $90million for a charity that most had not heard of before.

Of course some do it just for attention without donating but there are idiots in all walks of life. Even if it has made just one person donate when they wouldn't have before (and possibly more likely to donate to charities in the future) it is a success.

How you can have a dig at the concept is shameful.
 
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