Hot News: Cold cash: Ice Bucket Challenges leads to big donations for ALS research

Lucas Meyer

From Sidney Crosby to Justin Timberlake and Oprah Winfrey, ice bucket challenges for ALS research and donations are popping up everywhere.

It started with Boston resident Peter Frates earlier this summer and along with awareness, the challenge has been getting the job done on the financial side.

The challenge involves dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, but has been taken to extremes, such as athletes getting dumped by dump trucks and from helicopters.

Interim CEO with ALS Canada Tammy Moyer said it's difficult to tell just how much money has been raised because people donate to their own charity, but she said groups across Canada and the United States are showing huge increases compared to last year.

'In the States, we've seen numbers that are in the millions of dollars and I think one of the associations has $7-million that they've been able to have in the past number of weeks,' she said, speaking while visiting Boston.

As for her own organization, they are currently sitting under the $100,000 mark, but they have another tally to do on Monday and they have their major event, the ALS walk later this year.

'It's a huge increase over what we would normally see in the month of August and we're talking about this in just one week,' she said.

She added they can't believe the response.

'Who would've thought something like dumping ice over your head when you're dealing with such a terminal illness and such a devastating disease, who would've thought that something so fun would be related to it?' she said. 'We had no idea, at every moment, I keep thinking, when is it going to end and it keeps growing.'

According to ALS Canada, 3,000 Canadians are affected with the disease, but Moyer added it's not because the incident-rate is small, rather because it leads to paralysis and eventual death from diagnosis in 2 to 5 years.

There is currently no treatment or cure.

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