Champaign man, ALS advocate reflects as ice bucket challenge comes back for a new cause
'It's great to get people involved in the fight,' Harsha Gurujal said.
PREVIOUSLY: 2024 Champaign Walk ALS hopes to raise money and awareness
The ice bucket challenge is once again going around the internet, but this time it's benefiting something other than Alzheimer's research. More than 17 million people took part when the trend went viral back in 2014. Now, it's championing something new.
'My granddaughter Sophie came to me one day and said, 'Grandpa you're not going to believe this, I did the ice bucket challenge,'' Gurujal said. 'And I got all excited. I'm like, 'For ALS? And she said, 'No, it's for mental health awareness.''
Mental Illness Needs Discussion, or MIND, is a student group at the University of South Carolina. They helped the challenge resurface and have raised more than $370,000 as of Sunday.
'To have people that are young getting involved in the ice bucket challenge and to have them raise awareness is excellent,' Gurujal said.
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Gurujal remembers the initial challenge as a pivotal time for people's awareness of ALS.
'My mom was diagnosed with ALS in February of 2019,' he said. 'She passed away March 13 of 2020. There is not enough money in this world right now to do all the research that is necessary.'
The more than $100 million raised for the ALS Association definitely pushed research in the right direction. Gurujal said the two causes are more connected than people may realize.
'When you get ALS, you lose all of your physical capabilities but your mind stays intact,' Gurujal said. 'You don't lose any cognition, so you're fully aware of all the things you're losing. [That can cause] people to go into very deep depression.'
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He said the comeback trend speaks to how powerful social media can be, and hopes people continue to show up and speak out for both initiatives.
'The fact that mental health awareness is being raised and we're able to combine the two ice bucket challenges is just elating,' Gurujal said.
MIND has blown their initial $500 goal out of the water, getting closer and closer to their new benchmark of $500,000.
The ALS association has praised their efforts saying that their thrilled that the challenge has become a 'new form of activism.'
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