The “Ice Bucket Challenge,” a viral fundraising campaign that raised millions for ALS research in 2014, has made a comeback with a new focus: mental health awareness.
Students at the University of South Carolina (USC) have reimagined the challenge to support mental health. The MIND club, which stands for Mental Illness Needs Discussion, launched the #SpeakYourMIND campaign on Instagram in March. The challenge encourages participants to pour ice water over themselves, post the video, and nominate others to do the same. The goal is to raise awareness and encourage open conversations about mental health.
The campaign has raised over $100,000 as of Friday. It has also gained attention from notable figures, including former NFL players Peyton Manning and Emmanuel Sanders.
Wade Jefferson, a USC junior who founded the MIND club, started the initiative after losing two friends to suicide. He said the campaign aims to make discussions about mental health more normal and accessible. Jefferson never expected the campaign to go viral. He originally set a modest fundraising goal of $500, expecting the campaign to stay local to USC.
Brett Curtis, the director of community fundraising at Active Minds, said nonprofits have long sought to create a viral movement like the Ice Bucket Challenge. He added that it is ironic that the same challenge is now being used to talk about mental health.
The ALS Association, which benefited from the original challenge, has shown support for the new initiative. They expressed excitement in seeing the spirit of the Ice Bucket Challenge continue in new forms of activism.
At its peak, the original Ice Bucket Challenge received massive attention, with celebrities like former President George W. Bush, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Derek Jeter taking part. However, some critics doubted that the trend would lead to long-term support for ALS research.
For the MIND club’s campaign, donations were never the main goal. Curtis emphasized that the mission was always to support students and to keep the conversation about mental health going for as long as possible.
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