Ms. Orr Ice Bucket Challenge Video

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle spasms and difficulty with bodily functions such as speaking, swallowing, and breathing. The ice bucket challenge was started by a student with ALS at Boston College to promote ALS awareness. The feeling ALS patients get when they have muscle spasms is similar to the feeling of having ice water dumped on you. Friends nominate each other on Facebook and Instagram to either dump ice water on them or donate $100. ALS awareness and donations have dramatically increased by millions of dollars since 2013.

One of our teachers here at Magnet was nominated to do the ice bucket challenge over Facebook by a student. Ms. Orr teaches Global Studies, Honors Government/Economics, and Law Education. Here, she gives us some details about the challenge:

Q: How did you react when you were nominated by senior, Grace Lesesne?

A: I really was like “man, I’m too old for this! I don’t feel like this!” But since you challenged me, I never back down from a challenge.

Q: What prompted you to do the ALS challenge on the first day of school, rather than on your own time?

A: Because I didn’t have anyone to do it at home and I don’t want to pour a bucket of ice on me. Just doesn’t make any sense. If I do it in front of everybody at school, I know that it will build up hype about it and I will never have to do it   again.

Q: What are your thoughts on the current ALS ice bucket trend in our country?

A: Its not going to last unfortunately because it is a trend. There have been so many other ice bucket challenges with many other things. I think it’s amazing it’s raised so much money in a short period of time. Given people’s attention span, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s over and done with by next week.

Q: Do you think people do the challenge knowing what ALS is? Or just for the challenge?

A: I think it’s half and half. To be honest with you I didn’t know Lou Gehrig’s disease was known as ALS. It did inspire me to learn more about it, but there are a lot of people who are just going along with the trend.

Q: What was the first word that came to your head when you felt the ice come down on you? How did the crowd react?

A: It actually felt really good because I wore a wear a sweater and a jacket that day. Also, I prepared myself  for the ice. I set my mind to the ice hitting me, but being already in a sweater jacket, the ice was a welcome surprise. Plus I had to make sure my hair didn’t get wet.

Q: Would you be in for a round 2?

A: I sure would. Now that it is nice and hot! Come October? No!