Kenosha Festival Foods ABMS Joe Beranis braced himself and accepted when nominated for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge last month. In case you missed it, the challenge consists of agreeing to have a bucket of ice water dumped over your head, while being recorded, to raise awareness of the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Participants encourage others to donate money to groups like the nonprofit ALS Association, and often dare their friends to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge or forfeit by making a donation.

Joe was nominated to take part in the challenge on Aug 26, along with 11 Festival Foods department managers and the owner of Good Value Pharmacy. That group put a slightly different spin on it: For the week preceding the challenge, jars were put out to collect donations. Whoever collected the most money would receive the honor of being doused with a 22-gallon trash can full of ice water. The other challengers were dunked with smaller buckets.

“It went really well. To be honest with you, we raised a lot more money than I thought we were going to,” Joe says. “Raising the money before we did the challenge, so that people had the incentive of seeing them get me with the big bucket, was a good way to do it.”

Thanks to donations from friends and coworkers at Kenosha Festival Foods, Kenosha Main, and Regency, Joe was in first place until the final day of collections, when Festival Foods’ store director pulled ahead. He collected nearly $300, and in all, the participants raised more than $1,300.

As for the soaking itself? “It was pretty darn cold,” Joe reports.

On a related note, the ALS Association has debunked an article you may have seen on Facebook or elsewhere online claiming that most donations go to overhead and executives’ salaries, rather than to help find a cure or care for people with ALS. You can read their debunking here at their website, at alsa.org.

Submitted by Andrea Burgess, PB, Kenosha Festival Foods