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Sitting in the seat of an old fashioned dunk booth

“Now this is how you raise awareness”

Patron pays a dollar to get three balls.

Hits bulls-eye

Guy drops into tub of ice water.

“I may want to reconsider this.”

Unless you’ve been living under a social media rock for the past week, there was no way you could have missed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge spree.  The challenge involves either donating $100 to ALS or drench yourself with a bucket of ice cold water and donate $5 instead.  A bevy of self soaking videos have been making the rounds not only within the purveyors of Facebook and Twitter, but among the famous and wealthy.  Some among the well known have been the cast of The Avengers, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and the entire Kennedy clan.  There have been some hilarious variations (they really should have just donated the $100) among the masses.   It seems like folks across the country, through this have created their own entry for America’s Funniest Home Videos.  The fact that this is happening during the summertime helps things along, but the question is, how many of these folks know about ALS?  Worse yet, how many of these folks are actually donating $100 to the charity?

Charlie Sheen seems to have the right idea.

And for those of you who don’t really understand what happens when you have ALS, watch the below video for a true eye opener.

The dude in this video above is Anthony Carbajal and he was diagnosed with ALS.  It also runs in his family.  In his video, he doesn’t just go through the challenge, but he also shows you what it takes to care for his mother, who is presently in the later stages of the disease.  If you want to donate money to support his fight against ALS, click here.  This is what you’re trying to bring awareness to and what you’re trying to find a cure for.

And another question, how many folks know anything about all the other charities that they are supposedly trying to highlight and help?

For example, I’ve recently received this challenge from a friend:

SORRY, victims, but according to the rules…

You should not have liked or commented on my status! Now you get to pick one from these below and post it to your status. This is THE 2014 BREAST & PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS game. Don’t be a spoil sport, pick your poison from one of these and change your status, 1) Damn my balls are sweaty 2) Just used my boobs to get out of a speeding ticket 3) Anyone have a tampon, I’m out? 4) How do you get rid of foot fungus? 5) Why is nobody around when I’m horny? 6) No toilet paper, goodbye socks. 7) Someone has offered me a job as a condom tester, but I’m hesitant. 8 )I think I’m in love with someone, what should I do? 9) I’ve decided to stop wearing underwear. 10) It’s confirmed, I’m going to be a Mummy / Daddy! 11) just won $900 on a scratch card 12) I love my big bouncy boobies. 13) i swing my balls back and forth. 14) that wasn’t a fart, new pants please. Post with no explanations So sorry I fell for it too!!!!! Looking forward to your post Shhhhh!!

Doing a little digging, I found that the above campaign is not sanctioned.  This is literally charity spoofing.  There’s no link associated with breast cancer research or prostate cancer research and there’s no link to where you can help or donate money to the cause, it’s just a method to embarrass the poster and get others to be just as foolhardy.

From someone who has been involved with charity fundraisers for some time, it’s not only about raising awareness through education, but also to raise money to find a cure.

For all those who are taking the ice bucket challenge, particularly those who are earning six figures or more, why aren’t you donating the money to the cause as well?

Do not be fooled by charity spoofing campaigns.  Do some research, and if you want to help create a campaign, at least add a link to the charity and inform those around you on the cause and encourage folks to donate.

Fact of the matter is, by joining charity campaigns like these, when they aren’t educating and/or raising money, what good are you really doing?  If you’re spoofing yourself for the sake of charity, at least do it for a real cause.

Here are some charities below that can always use awareness and funds:

Breast Cancer Research Foundation

American Red Cross

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital

City Harvest

Habitat for Humanity