The campaign rolled out slowly but strategically. The challenge dared folks to dump a bucket of ice water over their heads, post a video of it on Facebook, tag friends to do the same and donate money to ALS. First, close family and friends were challenged. Then it spread to adjacent communities. Then new cities. Then new countries. Then athletes and celebrities. Will Smith. Bill Gates. Oprah. Mark Zuckerberg. The original crew worked day and night to fan the flames and it soon became the biggest and most exciting social movement to ever exist.

17 million videos were created, over 440 million people viewed the videos, 159 countries participated, 70 billion video views were counted and $220 million was raised. More people participated than the Super Bowl and Oscars, combined. More money was raised each day than the annual budget of the ALS Association in New York. And hope for a better future for ALS was created.

In the summer of 2014, some small-town ice buckets turned into one of the biggest movements to EVER occur on the internet.

The ALS world had been quiet for a while - patients were nervous about speaking up and there weren’t any Oscar-winning blockbusters about it yet. Lou Gehrig’s disease, a man who exists in B&W photographs, just wasn’t top of mind.

But something had to be done. Patients Pete Frates, Pat Quinn, Anthony Senerchia and their families believed this and they challenged themselves to combat this degenerative and silent disease with something light, fun and easy. And to leverage the power of the social graph to make it spread like wildfire. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was born.