Nancy Frates: Why my family started the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The rest is history

When 27-year-old Pete Frates injured his wrist in a baseball game, he got an unexpected diagnosis: it wasn’t a broken bone, it was ALS. Better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS causes paralysis and death—there is no cure. And still, Pete saw an opportunity to drive awareness about the disease. In a brave talk, his mom Nancy Frates tells the story of how the family developed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and took great pleasure in seeing everyone from Justin Timberlake to Bill Gates take part. If you accepted the challenge, please take the next step: share this talk as you did your challenge video.

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[EvilElephnt]

I hate to be trivial but when people applaud themselves / applaud with everyone else when they're applauding the person on stage, arrrgghh so annoying. Not even if they're doing it arrogantly/narcissistically it still annoys me. Anyone else agree?

[robthehitmanrude]

I've come to realise charity isn't about solving the world's problems.
Its about people applauding each other and feeling good about themselves.

[NachiketVartak]

The Chancelor of Germany is 'Angela Merkel', not Andrea. We thank you for not being ignorant about the actual names of people who are using for name-dropping.

[Odinb]

Total waste of water! It was disgusting to watch that fad. .

[YT-Observer]

RIP Pete Frates. 34 -
December 9, 2019
ice bucket challenge
Lou Gehrig ALS

[wendyryd]

Wow! I am embarrassed to read so many idiotic comments full of negativity and hate. Moving you, Nancy Frates, for sharing this video!!! I loved it! I flew home from California to Texas for Labor Day weekend and knew my family was planning to get together for the holiday. So, I posed the challenge, and despite some of the "scaredy-cats, " ten of us were bathed in ice that day. I was so proud to see my family members be part of something important and meaningful, and I was honored to be able to participate as well. Again, thank you for your presentation! I learned from it and found it touching.

[ThatShyGuyMatt]

This was the longest most boring talks ever. Or at least the longest intro into getting to the point of them starting the challenge. Not to mention is it me or does she seem a bit egotistical... like why would you even talk about this. All I hear is "Me, me and me!". Or I could be wrong and just in a grumpy mood. 

[taiya]

Don't know what is with all the hate for the ALS challenge. Yes some took it too far and had to make stupid spectacles of themselves but it is a disease that could use some more publicity. Cancer is never in danger of losing money, but ALS is seldom thought of. If this brings at least a small percentage of help, then it is worth it. Those stating it was a waste of water, look at it like this, the amount wasted is no different than the water you waste every day waiting for the shower to warm up, and if done outside, water for plants, when was that a bad thing.

[Mattteus]

after wiping the tears from my eyes I noticed that this is in Faneuil Hall

[neddyladdy]

Might have been a good idea to tell those lucky people not from the US what ALS is.

[TheMKEWERBY]

My only regret is, yes, I took it...but too late. As by last August and after a couple years of initial opposition to it,  the campaign was LONG out of its heyday. Also,  I feel I sent in too little money and the people I nominated either didn't want to or were unable to accept it.

[Shadow-vpvd]

wow beautiful speech.  Very inspiring.

[elmoyou]

I'm just wondering... how much of that 100+ million will actual go to good use. How much will get lost in organization overhead, personal expenses and what not. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is great that there will be a surge in the effort to understand ALS better, but as with most (hyped) charities and 'good causes', I just keep my fingers crossed and hope that we're not going to learn that millions turn up either missing or misused. Because as with any place where there is a large amount of money, vultures are never far away. Charities and 'good causes' are by no means an exception.

[livefast]

They started it to make money and donate very very little.

[theriverofgordon]

One thing i cant help but wonder is what kind of pay the family drew from their philanthropic work.
Everyone knows that there are various ways that people involved in charities get paid generously to "spread awareness".

The other thing that is interesting is that it seems a majority of the money winds up in the hands of the private sector. Who does the research? The private sector and the universities which are for profit. So the money winds up being part of the companies equity. Money coming in from the public means they can spend less of their own profits on research.

[edyeva]

This will become the most disliked Ted talk.

[id]

And I still don't know what ALS is. This entire campaign was done the same way: Raise awareness about ALS! ..and then they poured ice buckets over their heads. Most people just did it because they have this herd instinct to just do whatever others are doing mixed with desire for attention and boredom. Nobody actually spread awareness about ALS. It was just a campaign that ran out of control. Even more ironic was that you were suppose to donate money OR pour ice water over you head, but dummies totally missed the point. I only saw one guy who donated first and then took the bucket regardless. Some of the idiots out there even failed at the ice bucket challenge and managed to hurt them selves. Raising money - yes, going viral - yes, raising awareness - no. People will forget about it as soon as it goes out of fad.

[imuurme]

what an amazing lady.. love her passion in delivering a very emotional speech..!

[RanjitKrishnanNair]

Wait a sec.

Did I just see the female Steve Jobs of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

Impressed.

#AlsIceBucketChallenge

[Animurh]

125 million dollars damn that's a lot of shekels