ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Recently, everybody, like really everybody is doing the ALS Ice bucket challenge.
The challenge is to mix a bucket of ice and water and pour it over yourself, like this:

or like this as a group

So what exactly is ALS and how did it come about and what's the cause it's supporting?

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis which in very simple terms, is a type of brain degenerative disease. Its characteristics include muscle pull / tightness, muscle mass decrease, difficulty of speech, swallowing and breathing.

Here's an ESPN feature of Pete's story and ALS ice bucket challenge which I strongly encourage you to watch if you are interested, but if you do not have the time or are simply too lazy or just not interested in the details, scroll down somemore.

ESPN Feature on Pete's story & ALS on Youtube 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCoKB_tU9ng

It started this this man, Pete Frates

Pete Frates was diagnosed with ALS and wanted to fight this disease collective and wanted more action to be done. His friends introduced him to the ice bucket challenge, which main objective is to raise awareness and funds for a specific charity. Pete went on social media and ask his friends to do it for his cause - ALS. Then things got viral and his friends, athletes, celebrities and everyone just did it. In Aug 2014, Pete did the challenge he asked so many people to do himself.

My respect to you, Pete Frates and I hope you win the fight against ALS.

(All screengrabs above are from the video and all rights belongs to ESPN and their respective owner)