Junior Travis Stroman, along with other Ncounter employees, pours water on Tempe community members on Saturday, Aug. 23 as a part of the ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge. Ncounter matched the donations that community members gave at the
event. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is the challenge everyone in the nation seems to be doing right now, and it even cooled off the heart of Tempe when breakfast and brunch restaurant Ncounter took the challenge.
Every bucket of ice water poured over someone raises money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Saturday afternoon, the Ncounter staff and Downtown Tempe Community members took part in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge.
Ncounter staff, Downtown Tempe Community members and people visiting Mill Avenue all raised money and dumped buckets of ice water on their heads to support the research for the neurodegenerative disease ALS.
Ncounter owner Kathy Coker said she has a close friend with ALS.
“She was diagnosed two years ago," Coker said. "She gave us the motivation to get involved in the ice bucket challenge."
Not only do participants have to douse themselves with ice water, but the challenge asks for a donation to go towards the ALS Association. Ncounter donated $500 and was matching all donations they received at the event, Coker said.
Daniel Grover, 29, one of Ncounter's managers,brought everyone together for this challenge.
ASU alumnus Daniel Grover and ASU student TaylorGrace get cold buckets of water dumped on them
outside of Ncounter on Saturday, Aug. 23. Ncounter
participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and
donated $500. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)
“I wanted to make it a community thing, not just a Ncounter thing," Grover said. "I wanted to get all of Mill Avenue involved. I invited Downtown Tempe Community members and also challenged Hot N Juicy Crawfish and Gringo Star.”
The event had a good turnout, even though there was no official count of how many people participated, Coker said. She added that she was proud of the staff and the community that donated and participated.
There were many participants this afternoon getting drenched in ice water. Ncounter employee and business marketing sophomore, Sydney Blackmon said she took the challenge because she believes it’s for a great cause.
“I was already challenged by my sorority,” Blackmon said.
In addition to employees, many people off the street stopped by and pulled out their phone to record themselves accepting the challenge.
Lex Schommer, 24, said she'd seen the challenge on Facebook a couple of months ago, before it took off and celebrities started participating.
"I believe this was some real good team camaraderie and was for a really good cause,” she said.
Reach the reporter at William.A.Parker@asu.edu
