This afternoon, business owners and friends are gathering on Cedar Avenue in Trail to dump buckets of ice water on their heads, and while it may look a bit silly, it is for a good cause.
All over the world, people have been showing their support for Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, by taking the ice bucket challenge and posting videos all over social media, and now it has gone local.
Businesses up and down Cedar Avenue around Eldorado St., are raising money for ALS research and creating awareness for a disease that is diagnosed in two out of 100,000 people every year.
The idea behind the viral challenge is to either dump a big bucket of ice water over your head, or donate $100 to support ALS charities, but many do both.
Wendy Toyer, executive director of the ALS Society of BC, says the last two weeks of ice water bucket dumping has been extremely beneficial to the charity.
“My bookkeeping staff is working with volunteers just trying to keep up,” she said. “Over the weekend, we had over 500 individual donations made and that is directly because of the ice bucket challenge.
“Normally for the entire year, we would receive about $200,000 (at ALS BC), and we, directly, have received over $35,000 (just over the last couple of weeks).”
The Trail edition of the ice bucket challenge starts at 4 p.m. on Cedar Avenue and folks are welcome to watch, or even join in on the soaking wet and freezing cold fundraiser.