For a few weeks now, the USC ice bucket challenge has been trending with influencers like James Charles and Brook Monk participating as well as people here in the Lower Dauphin community. A lot of people are wondering why it has returned or how it got renamed and the reasoning behind this is quite sweet.

The original trend was the ALS ice bucket challenge which happened in 2014. Three men who were diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) were determined to spread awareness and raise money for the research of ALS in hopes to find a cure. They were able to raise around 220 million dollars for the ALS Association and managed to get celebrities like The Rock and Chris Pratt to participate in their challenge.

Sophomore Nat Buffington said, “I was pretty young when the first ice bucket challenge happened but I remember my dad being forced to do it.”

So, why is it back in 2025? The ice bucket challenge seems to have been revived by the University of South Carolina who dubbed it the USC Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge. Wade Jefferson is very passionate about advocating for mental health awareness and was inspired by the 2014 trend and decided to throw his own spin on it. He lost two friends to suicide and wanted to educate others in hopes to prevent others from committing or losing friends to suicide. 

When someone is “nominated” for the challenge they have two choices. If they deny, they are expected to donate money to the cause with a sum of around 100 dollars seeming to be the generally accepted amount. If they choose to complete the challenge, the individual has twenty-four hours to do so. When completing the challenge they are expected to state that it is the USC ice bucket challenge, thank the person who nominated them, and nominate three more people. It is recommended to do this fully dressed and outside to avoid the cold and the mess. After filming the video, post it on social media and know that the temporary uncomfortableness was for a great cause.

Freshman Chloe Thorp said, “ I was not planning on doing it when I got nominated but it’s for a good cause so I ended up participating.”