Ice Bucket Challenge Arrives at Algonquin College

Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Lou Gehrig was one of the best baseball players the sport has ever seen. He became known as the iron man for playing in 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood for decades until it was finally surpassed by another baseball legend, Cal Ripken Jr. Within the baseball fraternity, Gehrig is lauded for his accomplishments on the ball diamond, but he is best known for the debilitating disease that attacked his central nervous system, ending his career in 1939 and taking his life only two years later. Seventy- five years after the world learned about “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” the struggle to find a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS continues.

A movement that started earlier this summer to raise awareness about the disease is now raising millions of dollars to help in the fight against ALS. The “ice bucket challenge” has taken off across North America, using social media sites, as a platform to encourage participants to challenge others to donate to ALS research, after dumping cold ice and water over their heads. At Algonquin College’s Waterfront Campus, several faculty and staff have joined the challenge. It started with English professor Shawn Pentecost who challenged three Algonquin employees, asking that they also make a donation of $50 to the ALS Foundation. Since then, several college employees have taken part in the challenge.

Algonquin College has always had a great spirit of giving. The staff, faculty and students support many causes including the United Way and Cancer Society. It says a lot about the wonderful college community that exists at the Waterfront Campus.

If you are an Algonquin employee that has participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge, I invite you to post your video in the comments section of this blog.

Posted by: Jamie Bramburger, Manager, Community and Student Affairs

• Posted in