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Ice Bucket Challenge – the woolly liberal version

I suppose it’s almost inevitable that once you comment on people doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, you have raised your head above the parapet and should expect to catch a bullet.  In my case it was my dear sister-in-law Moira Richardson, a recent entrant to Facebook, who challenged me. Although I am rather too old and overweight for the wet t-shirt competition, I thought that I should stand up to the plate, and try to make the best of it in my best woolly liberal manner.

First question – to which charity should I donate?  I figured that the ALS Association in USA and the Motor Neurone Disease Association. in the UK had probably done very well from it already. I wondered about Macmillan but, alerted by my son Dan Bell, I noticed the paid ad at the top of the Google Search. I wondered how much they paid for that ad. So I decided to donate to a good cause dear to the hearts of friends Toni and Si Blower who lost their precious firstborn son within days of his birth.

Next question was the thorny issue of wasting water on this #firstworld tomfoolery.  I decided to stand in a tray and try to recycle the water.  The video will reveal my success? in this aim.

Finally whom should I challenge?  I have a lifelong horror of chain letters (and now emails).  The emotional blackmail makes my toes curl so this is my challenge:

To anyone in my network and circle of friends, I challenge you to choose to

• Do your own version of the challenge and donate to the charity of your choice
• Don’t do the challenge and donate to the charity of your choice
• Ignore the tomfoolery

Whichever you choose is just fine with me.

I had some concerns about the exploitation around this initiative – teach your two year old to swear on video as she drenches herself, endless media feeding frenzy on the topic, competitive social media strategies by charities.  But…. If it means that we are stirred into some sort of action and give more money to charity than we have done otherwise , it’s not all bad. So do think about donating this good cause or any other.

P.S. I forgot to say that if nothing else, it’s a great opportunity to see me make a fool of myself.