Ice Bucket Challenge Sweeps Across Social Media

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Maybe you've seen this video pop up on your Facebook wall - a friend holding a bucket of ice, then they suddenly pour it over their heads.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

So if you're wondering why people would do this - well, it's the ice bucket challenge. The Frigidare (ph) - Frigidaire? - is sweeping across the nation, and it's for a good cause.

GREENE: Friends and family of a Boston College baseball player who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease have used the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness and money to fight the disease. The idea is you post a video of yourself pouring the bucket on your head and then you challenge other friends to do the same thing.

INSKEEP: Wow, it's like you won the Super Bowl or something or the World Series.

GREENE: Yeah, totally.

INSKEEP: Anyway, it's working. And over the past few weeks, donations to the ALS Association spiked 1,000 percent compared to year ago. And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

GREENE: And I'm David Greene.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ICE ICE BABY")

VANILLA ICE: (Singing) Ice, Ice baby. Ice, Ice baby. (Rapping) All right stop, collaborate and listen. Ice is back with my brand new invention. Something grabs a hold of me tightly, flow like a harpoon daily and nightly. Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know, turn off the lights and I'll glow. To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal, light up stage and wax a chump like a candle. Dance, bum rush the speaker that booms. I'm killing your brain... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.