ALS Minnesota Board Member Reflects On Success Of 'Ice Bucket Challenge'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Dale Freking is a board member with the Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota chapter of the ALS Association. He told WCCO's Roshini Rajkumar that it's not always easy for nonprofits to raise money, so the Ice Bucket Challenge was enormous for ALS.

"We have a number of events that we actively engage in each year, 18 of them each year, but none compares to the Ice Bucket Challenge," Freking said.

The national budget is about $28 million a year. The Ice Bucket Challenge raised $112 million.

On the News and Views segment, social media expert Lisa Grimm joined the conversation and said it really caught hold on Twitter and especially Facebook after television host Matt Lauer took part in the challenge.

Grimm says there have been three million videos uploaded.

She says there were four elements to this craze. One, it was organic. Two, there was a celebrity component. Three, there was a sense of community in it. And four, the enticement of taking part in a challenge.

"It can't easily be replicated," she said.

Freking said he remembered hearing about it at a meeting.

"I thought that sounds great, but it was a few weeks later before I saw the storm of interest," Freking said.

Freking wants to remind people they will be having another event on Sept. 20 in St Paul. To find out more, click here.