The Ice Bucket Challenge raised millions a decade ago. Now it’s back with a new mission

In this Aug. 7, 2014, file photo, women get doused during the ice bucket challenge at Boston's Copley Square to raise funds and awareness for ALS. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge – the viral online trend of people having buckets of ice water poured on their heads? It’s back, and this year, it has a new mission: raising awareness for mental health.

The campaign, launched by the Mental Illness Needs Discussion (MIND), a student club at the University of South Carolina, aims to raise money for Active Minds, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on youth mental health issues.

Dubbed the #SpeakYourMind Ice Bucket Challenge, the campaign has set out to reduce stigma around mental health, foster mutual support and advocate for suicide prevention.

“We believe conversations about mental health should be just as common and just as comfortable as conversations about physical health,” Wade Jefferson, founder of MIND, said in an Instagram video dated March 31 when the campaign kicked off.

“We are showing the people in our life that their mental health matters,” a message from the fundraising page reads. “We should be open about our mental health, and they should be able to seek the care they need.”

The Ice Bucket Challenge, which debuted in 2014, was a viral social media campaign that brought worldwide attention and funds to causes related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurological disease.

Participants would film themselves having a bucket of ice water dumped on their heads, then nominate friends to do the same or donate to ALS research (they would often do both). The previous campaign attracted prominent figures such as Taylor Swift, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey.

Globally, 17 million people participated in the original Ice Bucket Challenge, which helped raise more than US$220 million for ALS research and treatment.

This time, the challenge is focusing on an issue that is gaining wider attention. In the U.S., nearly 20 per cent of children and youth aged three to 17 struggle with a mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder, a crisis exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2022 report by the National Library of Medicine. For this age group, mental health challenges were the leading cause of death and disability.

Canada is seeing similar trends. In 2022, one in four Canadian youth had been diagnosed with a mental illness, Health Canada reported. Suicide was the second leading cause of death among those aged between 15 and 34.

The recent campaign has spread to Asia, where U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Edgard Kagan got drenched in cold water under an American flag, according to a video posted to his X account.

“Mental health is health, and it deserves the same urgency, empathy, and attention,” Kagan wrote on X. In the video, he thanked his son for nominating him. Then, he passed the baton to a local official and another colleague. “The ball is in your court,” he said, before dumping the water on his head.

Wade Jefferson, the MIND founder, told NBC News he was surprised by how quickly the campaign is gaining traction. Their initial goal was to raise $500. By Monday, the campaign had already raised more than $200,000.