Tag Archives: Issue 20230427

Throwback Thursday: Employees got cold and wet fighting ALS

Kenosha Festival Foods assistant branch manager Joe Beranis takes his turn getting hit with a bucket of ice water in August 2014. He raised nearly $300 to fight ALS.

In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge took the internet by storm, and North Shore Bank was part of the fun too. Created to spread awareness of and raise funds to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — also known as ALS, motor neuron disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease — the challenge was chillingly simple: Get a big bucket of ice water dumped on your head, capture it on video, and post the video, nominating somebody else to participate next. The Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million for the fight against ALS in 2014, the ALS Association says.

Our Kenosha Festival Foods branch participated in a modified version of the challenge in August 2014: Managers from the grocery store, the branch, and Good Value Pharmacy collected donations for a week, with the honor of being doused with the biggest bucket of ice water going to the person who received the most money. The effort raised over $1,300 to fight ALS.

Southwest branch employees also did the challenge that August, nominating their colleagues at West Allis to do it next — you can watch the action go down in the video above. Brrrr!