The Strange Ice Challenge Synchro

Here’s a strange trickster synchro. At first, I thought it was a fake story, like the ones that are featured in the Onion. But unfortunately, it’s true.

You’ve probably heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge or the ALS challenge.

The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on video, posting that video to social media, then nominating others to do the same, all in an effort to raise ALS awareness.  People can either accept the challenge or make a donation to an ALS Charity of their choice, or do both.

Corey Griffin, a philanthropist was instrumental in making the fund-raising drive go viral. He started it with his friend Pete Frates after he found out that Frates had been diagnosed with ALS, the Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Last week, Griffin drowned in a diving accident off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The 27-year-old dove off a wharf that serves as a popular diving perch for locals, resurfaced once, then slipped back underwater and drowned.

How odd that the man who popularized getting doused in ice water for charity would die in a water-related accident.

Griffin reportedly raised $100,000 at a fundraiser just hours before his death, with the ice bucket challenge having been one of the biggest talking points online in the past few days.

The drive has so far raised $22.9 million in aid of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Among participants have been Oprah, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, Charlie Sheen, George Bush and the Foo Fighters.

Corey Griffin