Last night, I was officially challenged to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the charity craze that’s sweeping the nation, and I gracefully accepted. Only one problem: where are the rules?
As far as I could find (through copious searching), no one, including ALSA, has written down exactly how you do the Ice Bucket Challenge, leading to a fair amount of confusion. How much should the donation be? Do I have to donate if I drench myself? Is there a temperature requirement on the water?
With that in mind, and with the Challenge still going strong, here’s a list of everything you actually need to do, to make that icy bucket of freezing water count:
1. Get Challenged
Instagram
This is a pretty important step that’s getting ignored as more people want to “go viral” with their “hilarious” Ice Bucket videos: you need to actually be challenged in order to do the, you know, Challenge.
It’s like a game of telephone, basically. A friend, coworker, or bitter enemy will do a video, and call out three other people to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Those three people need to call out three others, and so on, and so forth leading to a branch-like spread of the Challenge.
You can absolutely still donate to ALSA, but if you haven’t been challenged, please sit patiently by your computer and wait.
2. Accept The Challenge
Once you’ve been Ice Bucket Challenged, you have 24 hours to complete the Ice Bucket Challenge, and here’s where things are – once again – getting confused. If you refuse the challenge, which is an option, you’re a jerk who loves Lou Gehrig’s Disease. So don’t be a jerk.
Once you’ve decided to forgo jerkiness, you can take one of two paths:
2A. Pay $100
Don’t want to dump ice water on your head? Understandable. Donate $100 to help ALSA research a cure for ALS. You can do that by hitting the easy to find “donate” button on their website. At this point, you can merrily go about your business. The end.
2B. Dump Ice Water On Your Head
Don’t want to pay $100? No problem, get ready to film yourself dumping ice water on your head. But – and this is important – you still have to donate to ALSA, just not the full $100. We’ll get to that in a second.
3. Prepare Your Dark Materials
Boston Globe
Now that you’ve accepted your inevitable, soaking wet fate, you’ll need the following:
– A bucket
– Ice
– Water (cold preferable)
– A video capturing device with eventual access to the internet
– Probably a change of clothes
– Maybe a towel
We also recommend finding a spot where it wouldn’t suck to dump ice water, like your roof, backyard or coworker’s cubicle.
4. Film Your Masterpiece
Then you have to film it! You can do the video as short or long as you like, though we recommend keeping them as short as possible. The videos must include the following information, though:
A: Your name
B: Who challenged you
C: Accepting their challenge with the full name (“I accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge”)
D: Three more people you want to challenge
E: The website ALSA.org
F: A mention that you’re donating money as well as dumping da ice
After your info-dump, move on to the ice dump. Please make sure that its ice and water, or just ice, not just cold water, because guys, it’s an Ice Bucket Challenge – emphasis on the ice. Precision is key.
That’s it!
5. Upload Your Masterpiece
Then you can upload your video anywhere on the Internet: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, as long as you remember to tag the three people you challenged (so they actually know you challenged them), and plug ALSA and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge somewhere in one of your posts.
6. Profit
Facebook
Here’s the key part: if you accept the Ice Bucket Challenge, you still need to donate money, just anything less than $100. $1 is fine, $10 is great. ALSA recommends $35, $60, or $120, though you can donate however much you like.
To reemphasize: accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge and dumping ice on your head does not “free” you from donating funds.
And that’s it! Reward yourself by moving on to the KFC Bucket Challenge, and then call it a day.
Have you done the Ice Bucket Challenge? Any tips to add to the rules? Let us know in the comments below.
Alex Zalben
Writer/Editor at MTV News. You can follow him on Twitter, but not in real life because that would be weird.
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