Viral Ice Bucket Challenge Makes A Comeback, This Time For Mental Health
More than a decade after the Ice Bucket Challenge flooded social media with footage of people getting drenched in freezing water for a good cause, the viral craze is back — this time to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
The original Ice Bucket Challenge made a huge splash in 2024, as everyday people, celebrities, famous athletes, tech CEOs and politicians got tubs of ice water dumped on their heads to increase awareness of the progressive neurodegenerative disease ALS, and raise funds to battle it. The campaign was a staggering success, raising $115 million in donations in just six weeks, and some $220 million overall.
The 2025 version originated with students from the University of South Carolina's MIND (Mental Illness Needs Discussion) club, which is dedicated to destigmatizing mental health issues, providing peer support for those who live with it and advocating for suicide prevention.
The MIND students call their version of the craze the Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge, with proceeds supporting Active Minds, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that empowers youth and young adults to support their peers struggling with their mental health and transform the way mental health conditions are viewed and addressed. So far, the Speak Your Mind effort has raised more than $190,000 for the organization, whose founder, Alison Malmon, lost her brother to suicide 25 years ago. The tally is increasing by the hour.
The Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge follows the same simple format as the original. Participants dump ice water on their heads on camera (or have someone else do the dumping), post the video online and make a donation research. Then they nominate two to five others to follow suit within 24 hours.
Participants always know what's coming, but when the ice water hits them, the shock is undeniable — and often amusing. Ten years ago, during the Ice Bucket Challenge's first round, the public especially enjoyed watching high-profile figures like Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James and George Takei shiver, scream or laugh their way through the chill. Their willingness to look silly for a cause helped the challenge go viral, and made it feel fun, communal and urgent all at once.
Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the ALS Association released a report on its impact, saying money raised by the peer-to-peer fundraising effort enabled key research findings, including the identification of several new genes associated with ALS risk.
MIND kicked off its Ice Bucket Challenge with a video posted to Instagram on March 31. 'We believe conversations about mental health should be just as common just as comfortable as conversations about physical health,' Wade Jefferson, the club's founder, says in the video. High-profile participants in the Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge so far include former NFL players Peyton Manning and Today Show co-hosts Jenna Bush Hager, Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly.
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