Mayor Reed Accepts Ice Bucket Challenge

It may be your dream to throw a bucket of ice-cold water on the Mayor of Atlanta, but Kasim Reed did it to himself to raise awareness of a devastating and fatal neurological disease.

Reed filmed a video accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge, a wildly popular fund and awareness raising phenomena that is doing wonders for the ALS Association. So far, the challenge has raised $15.6 million for the ALS Association since it was launched in late July, walloping last year’s donation figures for the same time period.

V-103 radio personality and Atlanta Hawks public address announcer Ryan Cameron challenged the mayor to complete the challenge in an Aug. 17 tweet. According to the commonly-accepted rules of the challenge, a challenged person has 24 hours to produce a video that includes a verbal acceptance of the challenge, the nomination of three other individuals or organizations to complete the challenge, and the all-important dumping of a bucket of ice water on themselves. Failure to do so means the person must donate $100 to the ALS Association. Those who do complete the challenge only have to pay $10.

The mayor had a little help completing his challenge, with Chief of Staff Candace Byrd and City Attorney Cathy Hampton hoisting the bucket of ice water over Reed’s head.

Reed issued the Ice Bucket Challenge to his public safety chiefs George Turner, Kelvin Cochran, and Pat Labat.

Watch the video of Mayor Reed’s Ice Bucket Challenge here:

Mayor Kasim Reed ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from ATL26 on Vimeo.