Ice Cold Mavens

There's a craze going around on Face Book for a very worthy cause. It's called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It's to help raise awareness and funds for the ALS Association. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and is a very progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and eventually leads to death. There is no cure, but there is one known FDA approved drug, riluzole, that supposedly helps slow the progression; and a few other drugs in clinical trials that are promising. For those of you who don't know of Lou Gehrig, he was a famous baseball player for the New York Yankees from 1923-1939. He was stricken with ALS in 1939 which ended his career and forced him to retire at 36 years of age. Sadly, he died two years later. He was voted the greatest first baseman of all time.

The ice bucket challenge consists of dumping a bucket of ice water onto your own head or someone elses to raise awareness of the disease and encourage donations for research. The challenge dares persons to video it, post it on Face Book and then nominate others to do it within 24 hours. However, you can decline it and instead donate money to the cause.  This idea has gotten some backlash too: stop wasting water, wasting ice, and the ALS association has gotten criticism for testing their drugs on mice, and there are concerns about how the money is spent - but the bigger picture of the whole idea is that it has raised major awareness for a disease that so many people don't know of or have forgotten. Social media is a powerful thing and through it we can raise awareness for a plethora of different causes while trying to make a difference and having a bit of fun doing it. So let's give ALS their moment in the spotlight for this deserving cause; because before you know it, we'll be donating and participating in the next big challenge for the next cause that comes up with a schtick as clever as this one.

The Black Box Wine Mavens were nominated by Bruce Smith (of the Bruce Smith Band) to take the challenge and we accepted because it's an important cause and it looks like fun. We dedicated our ice bucket challenge to a boy named Joseph Garza of Brownsville, Texas USA who we heard is the only known teen (at 14 years of age) living with the disease that is attacking his body. He was recently due to have lung surgery so we are keeping him and his family in our thoughts and prayers.

Okay and now for our video: of course we had to do it in Wine Maven style - we hope you enjoy it and that you pick a cause of your choosing and donate money or your time if you are able.

VIDEO BLOOPERS - Enjoy!!