Post by Suzanne Killmer.
I am pretty sure that this morning I literally woke up standing on a soap box. While I have heard that sleep is supposed to be a restorative time for rest and rejuvenation, my brain does not always seem to get that memo. Further proof that being married to me can be an exhausting task, just ask Righteous Flower (Danny's Mayan Name) who was bombarded by a sampling of my frustration around critics of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge right before he walked out the door for work around 6:45 a.m. A friend recently shared that he would not be participating in nor supporting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge even though he had been challenged by numerous people. Of course this is his prerogative, but then the debate went further with this article entitled,"This is Why Critics are Slamming the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge" from E! - you know the Network that can bring the Kardashians in to your living room, which is a whole other phenomenon that I still do not understand. I digress. Of course the source notwithstanding, I would like to share my own perspective on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
I always strive to be honest, and in that spirit I will make it clear that I have not dumped ice cold water on my head. Rather, I made a donation to the ALS Association, Rocky Mountain Chapter in my Mom's honor since she helped care for a woman with ALS; so she knows first hand what an awful disease this is, and why a cure is so desperately needed. I would like to say that water conservation was at the heart of my decision, as eluded to in the critical article, but to be honest I felt as though my money was more valuable than any video I could create as I am not overly animated or particularly dynamic (unless I am yelling at the TV, apparently).
Now to the crux of the argument that I found myself making this morning before I was even fully awake. The outspoken critics of the challenge appear to be of the opinion that it is not raising awareness of what ALS actually is or how it impacts people. I would vehemently, yet respectfully disagree, as raising funds is a form of awareness. To put it in perspective, "in the last 22 days the National Chapter of the ALS Association has raised 22.9 million. Last year for the ENTIRE YEAR they raised 23.5 million." That statistic came out three days ago, at that rate the number could be over 25 million dollars. I struggle to comprehend how money of this staggering amount could be raised if people did not have at least a vague understanding of what their money was going to do. People do not give their money to just anything - and I say that with YEARS of nonprofit fundraising under my belt.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, combined with other marketing campaigns such as the video released by Major League Baseball on the 75th Anniversary of Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man Farewell Speech", have in fact contributed to a heightened sense of awareness that this disease exists and needs to be stopped! The video from MLB featured all 30 first basemen (and a cameo by Yankee Derek Jeter) reciting the now-iconic oration. Lou Gehrig passed away before his before his 38th birthday from this awful disease that now bears his name. Please take a moment to watch the video.
As I said, I have YEARS of nonprofit fundraising in my experience, both in professional and volunteer capacities. I currently work for a Network of Samaritan Centers that on average have to raise 30% of their operating budget every single year. For many this is a matter of keeping the doors open! This money is required to treat people with or without the ability to pay, meaning they also have to subsidize those people with insurance along with self-pay clients. Do you think that any non-profit leader would appreciate criticism around a campaign that is raising millions of dollars with out any overhead (staff time, operating costs, etc.)?! I have spoken to numerous nonprofit professionals who are at their wits end trying to think of new/different/fun ways to raise money in an effort to continue to provide much needed, quality services to people in need of care. Can you imagine carrying that burden on a daily basis? I can because I have experienced it. Do you think the critics of this campaign have?
Perhaps before you criticize efforts to bring about awareness and raise funds to combat or support something, anything; please think about the people involved in the process. Each day on my Facebook news-feed and other media outlets, amidst videos of people dumping ice water on their head, I see people talking about and donating to help end the suffering related to ALS! I also see people sharing that they have been diagnosed with this terrible disease. This is also a form of awareness because once you know someone who has been impacted, this abstract becomes very personal and very real! I only wish we could figure out a way to draw this much attention (both awareness and money) to other awful plights in this world: hunger/poverty, lack of access to clean drinking water, mental health, MS, diabetes, cancer. Whatever your cause is - please do your part to help support it, but also be careful about criticizing others efforts. Negativity does not help further any cause.
*Steps Down from Soap Box*
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