Okay so this seems pretty simple, have I got it? Start: get ice...then... put ice in bucket, put water in bucket tip bucket on head, probably scream a bit, tell friends, friends get ice, put ice in bucket, put water in bucket, tip bucket, tell friends? Yes? Yes, nailed it. It´s all pretty simple infact it´s genius.
I´d like to begin this rambling as a letter of praise and admiration to possibly one of the most switched on women in the modern world of social media. Go on the girls! I´m having trouble writing it though, here´s a first draft let me know what you think...
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Dear Jane H. Gilbert,
First of all Ms Gilbert let me offer my humblest of praises for your mighty efforts in raising awareness about ALS (We all know exactly what ALS is now right? Maybe I should edit this part out of my letter? What do you think guys?) and in doing so creating a world wide facebook phenomina now Ms Gilbert everyone knows your foundations name. But I am sad for you as people don´t know your name, you´re not getting nearly enough credit in the social media for your actions, and I think Ms Gilbert that the world should know your name. If you´re willing to take sizeable finacial credit for your endorsements then I think that it is only fair that you too should have your name in lights.
I´m sure that when Frigyes Karinthy stumbled across his 6 degrees of seperation theory this is exactly how he envisaged it being applied 86 years on, a non-profit organisation applying it´s principle to reach the world! My favorite part about your donation scheme is the fines, why if we were in the theatre I would be the first to rise to my feet in a standing ovation for this cheeky little clause. Let´s face it fads don´t last and sometimes people aren´t sure if they really want to join in or not and juuuust when they´re making up thier mnd where to shoot their video BOOM here comes a startled pigeon or and angry lama video fffffffllllllllfffffff and your efforts are burried in a draw with, 24 blow jobs and cat jumps gate BUT money talks and 24 hours on social media is a lifes work for a carrier pigeon particulalry if the little chaps startled antics have gone viral, how he´d manage to show his face again in a sea of tittering youtube fanatics (a moments salute for the pigeon too).
Do it now or pay more! It´s genuis. I´m sure your yearly salary is in corrolation with your takings so I´d like to raise a glass of the finest to Christms in the Gilbert household this year, may it be more extravegant than the last:
Jane H. Gilbert – President and CEO – $339,475.00
And of your many close and dear co-workers and advisors for their galant efforts here are some names I think we´d like to know too. They all deserve a letter of praise also.
- Daniel M. Reznikov – Chief Financial Officer – $201,260.00
- Steve Gibson – Chief Public Policy Officer – $182,862.00
- Kimberly Maginnis - Chief of Care Services Officer – $160,646.00
- Lance Slaughter - Chief Chapter Relations and Development Officer – $152,692.00
- Michelle Keegan – Chief Development Officer – $178,744.00
- John Applegate – Association Finance Officer – $118.726.00
- David Moses – Director of Planned Giving – $112,509.00
- Carrie Munk – Chief Communications and Marketing Officer – $142,875.00
- Patrick Wildman – Director of Public Policy – $112,358.00
- Kathi Kromer – Director of State Advocacy – $110,661.00
Kind Regards.
Polly.
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Don´t get me wrong I´m all about charitable giving, raise that awareness, fly that flag please please do. But what worries deep down in my core is that not only is the message, the action and the outcome here all a little wrong that stunts like this will actually have an adverse effect on future givings, when there are some damn hard working organisations out there and ALS is a great cause.
So what is ALS? A lot of people may think they haven´t heard of it, but if I were to say Lou Gehrigs disease one or two more eybrows would raise "Ooooh okay now I know." I will admit that previous to writing this I´d only heard of it in American movies and a famous scientist, I knew half of the symptoms and non of the causes. (I am still poorly edcuated in probably the entire matter I´m rambling about, but I am working on changing it so it´s a start.)
Lou Gehrig played almost 20 seasons major league baseball, to sum this up in British terms; the man was to the yankees what Ryan Giggs is to Man U. Infact it took over half century for any man to play as many consecutive games as Mr Gehrig. Mr Gehrig eventually retired from baseball with his infamous "luckiest man in the world" speach, he fought bravely and passed away 2 years later. ALS effects the nerve cells in the brain and also the spinal chord, the disease itself is porgressive so the syptoms become gradually more and more severe. These kinds of diseases strike a very personal chord with my family.
Another Hero of this cruel suffering is the incomparable Steven Hawkins. Mr Hawkins has survived for over 50 years with the condition and is a man I hold in a handful whome I refer personally to as my intecetual super heroes. Mr Hawkins actually joined in the ice bucket challenge himself although he did not endorse the ALS foundation, as only 19% goes directly to patient care and 27% goes to what is marked up as "research". Being a research charitiy this means that 73% isn´t going where they say it´s going! In addition some research charities have very strong links with large drug companies in a multi billion dollar industry where a cure is less lucrative than a treatment. I do not mean to offend so I will just hint towards a notion of better spending on care rather than companies, perhaps something I´ll go into more indepth later. I am not against research one can not cure without learning, the entire situation is potentially a unanswerable catch 22.
I will say however that the ALS foundation has a less then brilliant history as far as ethical testing goes, worded in quite a lovely way by an unlikely heroin Miss Pamela Anderson, in this letter:
Sorry
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I can't bring myself to do your Ice bucket challenge.
I enjoy a good dare- It's always good to bring awareness - in fun, creative ways / I don't want to take away from that.
but it had me thinking. Digging a bit deeper. I found that we may not be aligned - in our messages. So...
- I thought Instead / I'd challenge ALS to stop Animal testing /-- Recent experiments funded by the ALS Association, mice had holes drilled into their skulls, were inflicted with crippling illnesses, and were forced to run on an inclined treadmill until they collapsed from exhaustion. Monkeys had chemicals injected into their brains and backs and were later killed and dissected.
What is the result of these experiments (other than a lot of suffering)? In the past decade, only about a dozen experimental ALS treatments have moved on to human trials after being shown to alleviate the disease in animals. All but one of these treatments failed in humans—and the one that “passed” offers only marginal benefits to humans who suffer from ALS. This massive failure rate is typical for animal experiments, because even though animals feel pain and suffer like we do, their bodies often react completely differently to drugs and diseases. According to the FDA, 92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal trials fail during the human clinical trial phase.
Sophisticated non-animal testing methods—including in vitro methods, advanced computer-modeling techniques, and studies with human volunteers, among others—have given us everything from the best life-saving HIV drugs to cloned human skin for burn victims. Trying to cure human diseases by relying on outdated and ineffective animal experiments isn’t only cruel—it’s a grave disservice to people who desperately need cures.
Please, help scientists make real progress toward treating and curing human diseases by visiting HumaneSeal.org to find and support charities that never harm animals and which pour their time and resources into advanced, promising, human-relevant cures.
Well said Pam. I have to say I whole heartedly agree.
But my concern goes deeper than this, why would you chose to promote your charity by wasting a rescource that is sooo important to others? Over 85% of the worlds population lives in the driest half of the planet, 6 - 8 million die annually from the consquences of water related diseases. 6 -8 million! The population of London in 2013 hit a record 8.3 millions thats almost EVERYONE in London every year!
Various estimates indicate that, based on business as usual, ~3.5 planet Earths would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or North American.
Let that sink in for a second...
... now watch the video of a Ralph Gloria, a probationary firefighter pouring 4,000 gallons of water on himself.
4,000 gallons on one man... winning!
And this man is on probation? For the love of God don´t hire him. You won´t find this vido below! Then imagine if everyone of facebook poured a gallon of water on thier head thats 250 million gallons of water wasted. In America this year a man was sentenced to 30 days in prison for collecting rainwater, for harvesting a natural resource that fell from the sky! You will find that link below. Matt Damon saw the problem paid the fine and came up the genius idea of pouring toilet water on his head. I think I´m in love!
Another great man from the UK going by the name of Suni Phoenix left us with this gem, I won´t make you wait untill you´re done reading infact I encourage that you click it now. I think I love him too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zar6_TvxXgA
https://www.facebook.com/suni.feenix
We´re not just wasting water, we´re approaching the dangerous realm of canibalism as Sunni pointed out the ALS foundation is NOT the only foundation, the disease is not the only worth while cause and when the CEOs are taking such a huge cut of the extra 3 million raised so far, this money in the wrong pockets could have been money in the right ones. This water on the tarmac could have been water in tummy. We need to spread giving and congratulate those doing a great job and help the keep doing it. So many causes are kept off the social media grid and out of earshot, find them, support them, help them. Now ALS Foundation is getting a bad rep here as so many other non-profiters are keeping far higher margins, the point is find out before not after the phase sweeps.
My point is not to not give or not to have fun. Who doesn´t love the impromptu water fight? I admit I thought my nephews video was hillarious and before I really knew what a neck nomination was I joined in, (In my defence I was living in Thailand at the time and had little clue of the negative connotations and I did suggest instead of necking booze we hug homeless people, thugs and something else ridiculous, but hey my mistake, totally swept up with the masses thought it was funny) but my point is I´m not setting myself asside, I don´t think I know better, I just think we could all think a little more. I´m off to do some research on Steven Hawkings´s chosen charity the MDNA to se where I can feel good about donating. http://www.mndassociation.org/
Meanwhile my point is... Think for yourself.
Don´t let facebook trends dictate when and where you give, please give, keep giving keep researching and make a choice from a standpoint of education. You don´t need to make a public display of every good deed you do.
Don´t waste the gifts you have, like water, freedom of choice and the ability to educate yourself!
Here are some vidoes for you in the spirit of all things positive.
Another great challenge which my sister somehow found on Prince George of Cambridge´s Facebook page is by a little boy called Albert who could not partake in the challenge as he was born with half a heart who asks for no nominations no donations just join the donar list.
Matt Damon´s toilet water.
http://www.upworthy.com/the-ice-bucket-challenge-posed-a-problem-for-matt-damon-heres-what-he-did-about-it?c=ufb1
Alberts have a heart video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zar6_TvxXgA
Steven Hawkins Ice Bucket Challenge.
http://bgr.com/2014/08/28/stephen-hawking-ice-bucket-challenge/
Man Imprisoned for collecting water
http://www.truth-code.com/2014/08/it-begins-us-citizen-goes-to-jail-for.html
