All over social media, you might’ve seen videos on people’s profiles or stories of everyone – including celebrities, athletes, students and kids – dumping buckets of ice-cold water on each other’s heads, saying “thank you for the nomination.” The trend is called the “USC SpeakYourMIND challenge,” and everyone wants in on what is trending.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a movement where you or someone else must dump a bucket or bowl of ice water over your head to encourage donations and promote awareness for different causes. In the challenge, you are nominated by friends and family, and you then have 24 hours to take part in the challenge and nominate two to five more people to participate.
The ice bucket challenge originally started in 2014, but is making a comeback with a splash, and everyone wants the opportunity to join in. The first challenge was to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The trend all started with a professional golfer named Chris Kennedy, who challenged his cousin Jeanette Senerchia to pour a bucket of ice water on her head in honor of her husband, Anthony Senerchia, who had been diagnosed with ALS. Since then, the challenge has become widely known and accepted by many people, and the challenge has been taken on by many athletes, students, celebrities and even former presidents.
This challenge has just recently regained popularity due to a group of students from the University of South Carolina who started the trend back up again, but for a different cause. The group is called “Mental Health Needs Discussion” or “MIND.” The 2025 ice bucket challenge revolves around mental health awareness. The group at USC encouraged everyone to nominate people whom they feel they can “#SpeakYourMIND” to. Hence the name “The USC SpeakYourMIND Challenge.” Doing this challenge encourages everyone to donate to the group, and then all funds are sent to the non-profit organization of Active Minds, which raises awareness and attempts to rid people of the stigma surrounding mental health.
Neil Hammond, a math teacher at Gretna High School, said that although the challenge is for a good cause and to raise awareness, people tend to lose sight of what is happening.
“I think one of the biggest challenges is just people actually knowing why they’re doing it. I think there are a lot of people who are just doing it because it’s the cool thing to do right now,” Hammond said. “I think that one of the most ironic things about this challenge is the fact that the purpose of the challenge is to do it, and then you nominate three friends. So you’re getting more people involved. The problem is there’s people that are usually left out of the nomination process. Maybe some of them don’t have friends. Maybe some of them have mental health problems. Therefore, we are leaving out people who have mental health problems in a challenge that is supposed to help mental health.”
Students who have participated in the challenge have different opinions on the situation, but a lot of people claim that it is a good way to not only join communities together but also to help actually spread the effort.
Mya Hallgren, a freshman at Gretna High School, takes the more positive side of the challenge.
“I think that it is a good idea and activity that everyone can participate in, because it spreads awareness of mental health and truly shows the issue,” Hallgren said. “I think that the movement is a great way to get people all over involved with a cause that matters.”
