Obama pours cold water on Ice Bucket Challenge

August 22, 2014 08:45 am | Updated 08:45 am IST - Massachusetts

President Barack Obama won’t be taking part in the ice bucket challenge that is sweeping America to raise money and awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

The challenge asks people to post videos of themselves being doused with cold water and publicly call on others to do the same within 24 hours, or donate $100 to the ALS Association. It has raised more than $40 million.

Ethel Kennedy, the 86-year-old Kennedy family matriarch, tagged Obama to participate after recently soaking herself at her family’s Massachusetts compound, knowing the president was vacationing nearby.

Obama participated financially by donating an undisclosed sum.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.