Pete Frates’ family launches Ice Bucket Challenge 2.0 for ALS
Family of fundraiser founder aims to inspire new generation 10 years later
A decade later, the family of Pete Frates, the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient who helped start the Ice Bucket Challenge, is relaunching the campaign that went viral on social media, raising awareness and money to support ALS research.
In an event organized by the Peter Frates Family Foundation, relatives of the late former Boston College baseball player, along with sports stars such as former NFL MVP Matt Ryan, ALS researchers, and political leaders, met at Fenway Park in Boston to honor Frates’ legacy — and launch the “2.0” Challenge. Members of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, the New England Patriots football team, and the Boston Bruins hockey team all took part in the event.
It featured a live Ice Bucket Challenge that the foundation said was designed to inspire a new wave of participation, aiming to engage a new generation in the fight against ALS. In 2014, when the original campaign began, pouring a bucket of ice water over one’s head and challenging others to do the same went viral on social media, involving celebrities like President Barack Obama and singer Taylor Swift.
“My son was a born leader, but even he could not have imagined the power we can unleash with such a simple act,” Nancy Frates, Pete Frates’ mother and a founder of the foundation, said in a press release from the nonprofit. “One bucket of ice led to millions of beautiful tributes, and much more importantly, created a global platform for what had been a largely unknown, underfunded disease.”
Indeed, while raising awareness, the original Ice Bucket Challenge also brought in a quarter of a billion dollars worldwide to fund ALS research.
Focus of new ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is home healthcare services
While the fundraising campaign 10 years ago contributed to advances in research and treatments that brought ALS closer to becoming a “livable disease,” according to the Frates Family Foundation, there are still many costs that are not covered by insurance.
One is home healthcare services, for many patients. The foundation notes that such services become increasingly important in later disease stages, when traveling to the doctor or other necessary care becomes more challenging.
The Ice Bucket Challenge that Pete helped to initiate is cemented in pop culture history and was a watershed moment for research, but there are still overwhelming costs of home health care facing today’s progressed ALS patients and their families. … That’s our mission at the Peter Frates Family Foundation, and our work is far from over.
Michael S. Pitt, who’s been appointed the first executive director of the Pete Frates Family Foundation, said raising money for research and patient care remains a major need.
“The Ice Bucket Challenge that Pete helped to initiate is cemented in pop culture history and was a watershed moment for research, but there are still overwhelming costs of home health care facing today’s progressed ALS patients and their families,” Pitt said. “That’s our mission at the Peter Frates Family Foundation, and our work is far from over.”
To take part in the challenge, people need to take a bucket filled with ice water and dump it on their heads, take a video or photo of the action, and post it on social media using the #IceBucket10 hashtag. Participants can challenge their friends and family to also take part, or donate at the ALS Foundation donation webpage.
Peter Frates died in December 2019 at age 34.
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