The Ice Bucket Challenge is back again, this time to raise awareness for another prevalent issue. First appearing in the summer of 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge was popularized by three individuals living with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive neurodegenerative disease, to raise awareness and funds for ALS. The impact was huge, with $115 million in funding raised in six weeks to advance scientific research for a cure.
This past April, the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Mental Illness Needs Discussion Club (MIND Club) began another Ice Bucket Challenge- this time to raise awareness for mental health. The USC Ice Bucket Challenge, or the Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge, quickly took hold of platforms like Instagram. Millions of Gen-Z posted videos of themselves getting drenched with ice water and nominated friends to do the same. The trend aims at encouraging positive discourse surrounding mental health struggles, hoping to lessen harmful stigmas and raise awareness for the need for more mental health support.
While some question whether the new challenge is overshadowing the original’s mission, which still hasn’t been accomplished, since ALS is still 100% fatal, the ALS Association has supported USC’s new initiative. They have responded to its growing popularity by praising its positive impact and the new activism their original challenge has inspired.
USC’s MIND club began with a goal of raising a few hundred dollars to support mental health awareness. The Club’s founder and president shared that the challenge represents the Club’s main goals of breaking the mental health stigma, raising awareness for suicide prevention and practicing daily mindfulness.
These missions have spread far across the globe, as people from different countries spread a message of hope for the future of mental health support. As millions use their platforms to participate in the challenge and nominate their friends, coworkers and family members, the mission of the USC Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge continues to drive positive change surrounding the subject of mental health; speak out, speak up and know that there is always someone willing to listen- no matter how small you feel like your issue is.
