People around the world are standing up to Lou Gehrig’s disease by taking the ALS ice bucket challenge.
This summer, social media has boomed with videos going viral of participants nominating their friends and family to either pour a bucket of ice water over their heads or donate money to the cause.
According to the International Business Times, the challenge already has made over $41 million in proceeds, a huge increase compared to the past.
However, criticism has risen over whether or not the social media challenge has become a case of people just doing it to be cool without donating money – especially from celebrities.
Recently, Jackass star Steve-O criticized celebrities who are posting videos of themselves in bikinis pouring the ice over themselves but aren’t adding the link to the foundation.
He posted a message to his Facebook page, saying, “…When you consider the countless A-list celebrities who have actively gotten behind this cause by posting videos -- the fact that not more than fifteen million dollars has been raised is a tragedy. It's tragic because I don't think many of those celebrities even bothered to mention how or where to donate money for ALS research.”
“Most of them just poured water over their heads and named three random people, without including any ‘call to action’ which actually benefits victims of ALS at all. Had all those celebrities given this cause any thought, hundreds of millions of dollars might have been raised, and a whole lot more awareness,” he added.
He ended the note reaching out to the foundation with, “I'm nowhere near as rich or famous as many of the folks you've seen pour water on their heads, but I cared enough to get educated and donate one thousand dollars of my hard-earned money to http://www.alsa.org/donate/.”
TheCelebrityCafe.com researched which celebrities donated money - along with accepting the funny challenge - and counted down our favorite moments so far. Who would you like to see support the cause and help raise money for ALS awareness?
