The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge seems to be the topic of the hour here in the United States, taking over all social media by storm. Whether it is a video on Instagram, YouTube or Facebook, people are dumping ice over their heads left and right. But why? What is the satisfaction of dousing each other with freezing ice water? The answer is simple: awareness.

According to alsa.org, ALS, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Patients who have severe cases of ALS are bound to a wheelchair, relying on the caretaking skills of others to help them perform daily activities such as getting in and out of bed, eating and drinking. After being diagnosed, patients with ALS are only expected to live two to five years longer. No cure has been discovered yet.

This challenge is to raise both money and awareness for the disease, how it works is simple; Once you are nominated to do the challenge you have 24 hours to complete the task and nominate three other people, otherwise you must donate 100 dollars to the foundation. “…People do the challenge and/or donate money for research” Comm. Arts teacher Teryn MacGee said.

“Some of [my mom and I’s] friend nominated us,” freshman Megan Dolsky said “Then, we nominated people in our family.”

Just because you do the challenge does not mean a donation can’t also be made, quite the opposite in fact. “You pour it on [yourself] and donate money,” junior Ethan Ohair said, “[I] donated ten dollars.”

Movie stars, singers, TV hosts, high school teams and many more have taken the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and raised millions of dollars in the short amount of time that it has been a foundation. But believe it or not, the Ice Bucket Challenge did not start to simply raise awareness. It began with a few golfers who took on the task to raise awareness for pet charities instead.

Golfer Greg Norman challenged “Today” host Matt Lauer which he accepted and completed on national television, which most people believe is where the tasked really sparked. In between July 29, 2014 and August 28, 2014 98.2 million dollars has been raised, comparing to the 2.7 million that was donated in the same time frame the year before!

There has been quite the controversy on the reasoning behind so many of the youth participating in this social media frenzy. Some people believe the challenge is being taken just to hop into the trend as opposed to raising awareness for the foundation instead. “I think ALS should post a video saying what [the disease] is.” Senior Isaac Knopf said.

In order to donate money go to www.alsa.org for more details.