For the past few months, I've been seeing videos on Facebook of my friends taking the "Cold Water Challenge". This "challenge" entails posting a video of yourself dumping a large amount of freezing cold water on your head, and nominating 5 friends to do the same, then they nominate another 5 friends, and so on... with the purpose of spreading awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (known as "ALS" or "Lou Gehrig's Disease").

To describe the disease simply, ALS effects the brain's ability to initiate and control muscle movement, and can lead to paralysis and loss of life.

Obviously, the more people who are educated about ALS, the bigger the push for funding and research for this painful disease. The viral growth of the "Cold Water Challenge" videos make them a useful tool in spreading the word for such a worthy cause.

Here's my dilemma: I'm 100% for spreading the word about ALS, but on the other hand, I LOVE WATER. It's my favorite thing to drink and it's also my favorite place to swim, kayak, surf, and go pee-pee when the bathrooms are too far from the beach. My point is that, generally speaking, anyone who is reading this does not have a ANY problem finding water whether it's to drink or to go pee-pee in.

I also know that nearly a BILLION people on earth do NOT have access to clean, safe drinking water. (It's true! I read it on this website about 15 minutes ago!)

So watching these videos of people dumping out perfectly good tap water on their heads (in the middle of the summer, when it's not as much a challenge as simply a refreshing activity) struck me as pretty dumb, even if it's for a good cause. Although their intentions are honorable - and it's the thought that counts - in reality they are proudly saying, "In honor of ALS, I'm going to dispose of a finite resource that someone somewhere in the world would work 6 months of hard labor to be able to acquire."

I know what you're thinking... and yes, I'm being a smart-ass.

BUT... I'm a smart-ass with a solid point: Let's take the fight to get safe drinking water to the masses as seriously as we take the fight for a cure for ALS. That's why I've started The Clean Water Fund For The Awareness of ALS. (No, I'm not calling it CWFAALS. That looks and sounds stupid.)

Donate here or pass along to others to support both VERY worthy causes... let's kill two birds with one stone!! (Please don't hurt any real birds. Even if they poop on your head.)

Thanks For Your Support!!!

Alex

***Special thanks to all the Cold Water Challengers, because without your videos, I wouldn't have thought to start a campaign to help more people have access to clean, safe drinking water. Your dumping out of water wasn't in vain!!!