Red Sox celebrate 10th anniversary of Ice Bucket Challenge
Molly Burkhardt
BOSTON — On a nearly 90 degree August day, dumping a bucket of ice water on your head sounds pretty enticing. But the more than 100 people at Fenway Park on Thursday morning would have doused themselves regardless of whether it was 90 degrees or 30 degrees.
The ritual served secondarily as a way to cool off, but primarily as a way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which was created by the late Pete Frates to raise awareness and money for ALS research.
A Massachusetts native, Boston College alum and lifelong Red Sox fan, Frates lived out many a New England kid’s dream in 2006 during his junior year of college with a home run in the Baseball Beanpot Championship at Fenway Park. The home run was cemented as Frates’ favorite college baseball memory, and the video is one that Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said he watches often.
“It’s hard to express what he means to us,” Kennedy said as he shook out his hair after participating in the 2024 Ice Bucket Challenge in the outfield at Fenway Park. “I mentioned he first came on our radar in 2006 when he hit that home run in the Beanpot, and it was an eye-opener. A lot of our scouts were like, ‘Look at this kid.’ I remember him running around the bases and he did not crack a smile. It was like, ‘I’m supposed to do that.’”
Six years later, Frates was diagnosed with ALS, a nervous system disease formerly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function. Boston sports journalist Steve Buckley — who was among a group of nine speakers at Thursday’s event which included Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, retired NFL quarterback and Boston College alum Matt Ryan and four-time World Series champion Mike Timlin — recalled that Frates saw his diagnosis as an “opportunity.”
Following his diagnosis in 2012, Frates, along with fellow ALS patients Anthony Senerchia and Pat Quinn, created the Ice Bucket Challenge in August ‘14. As the name suggests, the challenge involves participants dumping ice water over their head and posting the video on social media.
In its 10 years, the challenge has raised over $150 million for ALS research and garnered the attention and participation of several celebrities, including Robert Downey Jr. and Frates’ mother Nancy’s favorite participant: Bill Gates.
“When Pete set that vision the night of his diagnosis, six hours after he was told he had 3-5 years to live, he said, ‘I’m going to get this disease in front of philanthropists such as Bill Gates,’” Nancy said. “And that was a gotcha moment. And then the second gotcha moment was last week, when we were at a National ALS convention, and they announced that they had leveraged that money to a billion dollars.”
Since Frates’ creation of the Ice Bucket Challenge, several iterations of viral social media campaigns to raise ALS awareness have emerged, including #FistBumps4ALS. The challenge was started by MLB’s beloved research savant Sarah Langs, who announced her 2021 ALS diagnosis ahead of the ‘22 MLB postseason. The fundraising campaign requires participants post a photo or video of themselves fist bumping while nominating three others to participate. The effort has raised over $90,000 since its initiation on Langs’ birthday in May 2023.
The Ice Bucket Challenge pioneered the viral social media campaign tactic for ALS research, and the Frates family has cherished the efforts like #FistBumps4ALS that have popped up since 2014.
“It is the essence of who Pete was,” said Nancy Frates. “Pete handed off to his teammate, and Sarah has taken that torch, and so have so many other patients. So yeah, if it had to be Pete and Pat that made this splash – and no pun intended, but they made the splash — they made this world stand up and listen to ALS.
“So all those ALS warriors that have followed, that is the essence of who he was: Make it better for the next guy. And that’s what Sarah’s doing, she’s taking it and she’s running with it now. And it’s what keeps us moving. We lost him five years ago, we lost our son five years ago, but we are still in it to win it and to support all those warriors of today.”
