USC students revive ice bucket challenge for mental health

No, you haven’t been transported back to the 2010s. The Ice Bucket Challenge is just going viral again — this time led by University of South Carolina students and with a new focus on mental health. 

USC student club Mental Illness Needs Discussion, or MIND, posted its first video on March 31 featuring club president and founder Wade Jefferson and other students participating in what the organization called the SpeakYourMIND Ice Bucket Challenge. The internet challenge might look familiar.

The MIND members nominated other students and encouraged viewers to donate to Active Minds, a nonprofit that equips young people to change the public’s perspective on mental health, before dumping a large bucket of cold water on their heads.

The challenge is a callback to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which went viral in the summer of 2014 when millions of people dumped ice water over their heads in an effort to raise money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and that does not have a cure. The original Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million for the ALS Association to fund research and care for people living with ALS. 

In MIND’s social media video, Jefferson said the club started the SpeakYourMind hashtag and challenge to raise awareness of mental health and promote the club’s goals of breaking stigma, advocating for suicide prevention and promoting daily mindfulness. 

“We believe conversations about mental health should be just as common and just as comfortable as conversations about physical health,” Jefferson said in the video. 

Brett Curtis, the director of community fundraising for Active Minds, said he doesn’t know exactly how the idea of a new ice bucket challenge came up, but said the USC students were inspired by the idea that one trend can unite a large amount of people behind a cause. 

“It was a chance to coalesce around something that mattered to people,” Curtis said. “So if we’re able to focus on that, to see people use that energy to speak up about mental health. We know it’s an issue that deeply affects so many, so it’s a pressing crisis that deserves attention, awareness and now financial support, too. “

Since March, the video and revived challenge have gone viral. USC MIND’s video has 1.6 million views on Instagram, and the account has been tagged in thousands of videos of people from across the country pouring frigid water on their heads in honor of mental health awareness. 

South Carolina football head coach Shane Beamer completed the challenge along with former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and former NFL wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. 

The challenge has participants from South Carolina to Maryland to Denmark. It’s branched off so far from 29201 that some people online are discussing their surprise at finding out that USC in #uscmind stands for the University of South Carolina — not the University of Southern California. 

Curtis said it is hard to guess when something will go viral, but he suspects that the challenge became popular because it gave people a chance to involve their friends and family and unite over something they care about. 

“I don’t want to speculate to anything other than the cause is important. And I think that’s the message that we drive back to,” Curtis said. “There are tons and tons of causes, again, recognizing the original intention of the challenge and also knowing that we can tie this to an awareness opportunity too. So yeah, any chance that we get to talk about mental health, I think, is an important one.”

USC MIND’s fundraiser for Active Minds has surpassed its goal of $50,000, collecting more than $52,000 as of April 18. Curtis said the money will go towards supporting Active Minds organizations at colleges across the country and will help the nonprofit provide more traveling speakers and programs like their Send Silence Packing exhibit, which inspires action for suicide prevention. 

Curtis said he expects for the SpeakYourMIND Ice Bucket Challenge to continue to grow, but hopes the conversations it starts will continue long after the trend is over.

“The conversations we’re having right now, the financial support that we’re seeing right now behind the mental health mission, it’s a starting place,” Curtis said. “This is not a finish line. This is a starting line for us to say that we can continue to empower youth and young adults every single day. So this looks like more more programs, more opportunities, a bigger tour next year for send silence packing program and ways to go equip yourself.”

For anyone interested in joining in on the challenge, USC MIND and Active Minds posted have instructions posted on their social media. Those interested in donating or learning more about how to advocate for mental health awareness can visit activeminds.org.