Ice Bucket Challenge

When my friend and fellow DA board of Trustee member Jamie Spatola put the call out for trustees to join school administrators and teachers to take the ice bucket challenge for ALS of course I answered the call. Never do I pass up an opportunity to make fun of myself on behalf of a good cause. In this case the cause is very close to the Durham Academy communities’ heart.

DA Alum Chris Rosati has been suffering from ALS for the last three years. He is an amazing guy with a great smile and infectious positive attitude. I was lucky enough to get to spend time with him interviewing him for my column that will appear in the next issue of Durham Magazine.

Quade Lukes, a classmate of Carter’s had challenged our head mast Michael Ulku-Steiner to take the ice bucket challenge which involves pouring a large bucket of ice water over your head or donating money to an ALS related charity. What I hope is that people will do the challenge and donate money.

As with all these viral things it was not a creation of a PR machine, but of some people who actually had ALS. They said if you pour a bucket of ice water on your head you can challenge three people to do the same, thus the pyramid effect.

For our challenge today Michael enlisted his colleagues and trusted side-kick Lee Hark who named three people we were challenging, Steve Hartman of CBS news who has interviewed Chris Rosati multiple times, Wool E. Bull for being the heart and soul of Durham and Vanilla Ice because Lee is apparently in love with Ice-Ice Baby after his viral video on the weather related school closing he and Michael made together last winter caught the Ice’s attention.

It seems like everyone in the video deserves the right to challenge three people. So on behalf of the dozens of us who poured the freezing water on our perfectly dry and warm heads I am challenging anyone who reads this blog to take the ice water challenge or even better take the easy way out and make a donation to an ALS charity. I am thankful that I am able to lift a heavy bucket over my head and I want to thank my body for continuing to work, unlike those with ALS. Let’s find a cure for this horrible disease.