Nancy Frates was just your typical mother of a baseball loving son, Pete. She had a happy, typical life until the unthinkable happened: her 27 year old son was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It began with a hand injury from baseball that just didn't seem to heal; when he went to the neurologist, he was told that it wasn't an injury... it was a degenerative, fatal disease that would turn his world upside-down. Nancy Frates describes this journey in her Ted Talk: "Meet the Mom who started the Ice Bucket Challenge." Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Pete made a powerful statement to his family: they were going to team up and create awareness about this "rare" disease. His goal was to get this disease in front of big wig philanthropists such as Bill Gates. Their entire family jumped on board: aunts, uncles, cousins, and other loved ones were given various responsibilities to make this possible. The pivotal part in this story was when "the ice started to fall" and Pete's roommate made a call to action. He poured a bucket of ice over himself and challenged others to do the same...all of this in an effort to raise money for ALS research. This simple gesture started a cascade of events that had worldwide impact. Nancy describes the most groundbreaking moment was when Bill Gates himself did the challenge; it was so monumental because that was the goal that started all of this!
I chose this Ted Talk because I had seen the ice bucket challenge on social media and wanted to relate a face to the movement. It's easy to look at a craze like the ice bucket challenge and forget that there is probably a story behind all of the hype. Watching this video gave me insight into the internal battle that occurs when you or someone you love is diagnosed with a fatal disease. Nancy said that many times she just wanted to curl up in a ball and not get out of bed. However, she knew she had to get up and live life for her son. If he could be this positive about his situation, she had to be brave as well.
After watching this Ted Talk, I looked for the ALS Association's webpage about the ice bucket challenge. On this page, they have a video of Nancy & Pete's story which was great to supplement with the Ted Talk. Here is a link to the site: http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
Frates, N. (2014, October). Meet the mom who started the ice bucket challenge [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_frates_why_my_family_started_the_als_ice_bucket_challenge_the_rest_is_history#t-564856
Pictured above is Bill Gates doing the ice bucket challenge. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/15/bill-gates-als-ice-bucket-challenge_n_5682914.html
No comments:
Post a Comment