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WIN News presenter pours cold water on Ice Bucket Challenge

Video: "I'm not saying it isn't a worthy cause but let's spread the love," says WIN's Lincoln Humphries.

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2014-08-25_0215WIN News sports presenter Lincoln Humphries has made a name for himself by refusing to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge -but not by being a spoilsport.

On Friday The WIN sports presenter told viewers the challenge had raised over $30m for a very worth cause.

“I’m not saying it isn’t a worthy cause but let’s spread the love,” he said, noting that it was Daffodil Day, and that cancer affects everybody at some stage in their lives.

“Instead of pouring fresh water and wasting ice over your own head, here’s a list of charities and communities in desperate need of fresh drinking water,” he said, listing groups such as The Water Project.

He said he wanted to nominate “everyone, everywhere who has more than what they need to donate what they can to the people who need it most”.

“That’s what charity is about, not putting yourself through mild discomfort with a bucket of ice and water.”

A YouTube clip has attracted over 700,000 views.

Via: Fairfax

10 Responses

  1. I’m disgusted and an “apology” doesn’t cut it ! I have family members and friends who have passed away from cancers, and others who have via treatments and surgeries survived. I know all about the “awareness/fundraising” events daffodil day Jeans for genes, white ribbon, silver ribbon ….. And the list goes on and on, and all of them worthy genuine causes and all well known and most government funded, MND is none of these not well known not government funded not understood or recognised until the ice bucket challenge went viral, and finally it was getting the notice it desperately deserves, then people in positions like your presenter, with no knowledge or research made the appalling statement he did ! It becomes a joke and loses it’s momentum and suddenly those who could see a light at the end of the tunnel end up back in the darkness waiting for the inevitable. This cuts deep…

  2. There are far too many people jumping on the bandwagon with this “ice bucket challenge” that it is already losing its point.
    Well done to the very handsome Lincoln Humphries for having the guts to call it like it is!

  3. The fact is that the ice bucket challenge has actually brought awareness to a good cause, a cause which (statistically) has lacked awareness.

    Maybe not every challenger has had the best intentions, but that doesn’t take away from the positivity of the challenge. I’ll admit that I’d never really known about this particular cause before the challenge went viral, as I’m sure is the same with others at my age and older. It has absolutely made positive change.

    Saying that, it’s pretty obvious that Humphries has brought more attention to himself rather than other causes, and I think it’s disappointing that, even when a cause is good, we immediately try to discredit it as a fad. Surely its brief moment isn’t taking away from contributions to other charities, and yet we still try and discredit it as something negative.

    We’ve become far too cynical, haven’t we?

  5. Per capita consumption of water in Australian households is 75,000L p.a. So a 10L bucket represents is 0.01% of a person’s average consumption and costs about 2.5c.

    Water in an area where it is easily and cheaply available has no connection to water in areas where is isn’t. It’s not like you can air mail it to Africa.

    The Ice Bucket Challenge was an existing meme that MND organisations have exploited for their own ends. MND is not a disease that attracts drug company money so they need to get it from somewhere.

    Like any charity confronted by a one of jackpot they have to save much of money, will increase the size of their organisation, it will lead to increased wages for employees but will also be used to increase care for people with MND and fund researches.

  6. The 9 News website reports that he “has since responded to critics apologising for using his position “as a soap box” and calling it a “gross error of judgement”.

    The charities he named in his piece are all well deserving but also well known and get a lot of donations. It makes it harder for lesser well known charities to raise funds and awareness without a gimmick. More often than not we don’t hear about certain charities until a friend or relative has that condition. I personally found Anthony Carbajal’s video extremely enlightening on what the challenge it means to people with ASL.

    Many have also said that Patrick Stewart’s take of the ice bucket challenge was the best way, and he still donated.

  9. My Neighbour had MND, when she was first diagnosed no one around knew much about the disease and some hadn’t heard of it. It was very difficult watching her condition deteriorate. This ALS bucket challenge has been absolutely fantastic for raising awareness and money, and very heartwarming to see so many people come together to fight for a cause that has been ignored for so long. It is exactly what charity is about.

    I think it is extremely thoughtless for this guy to knock it down because it is not as worthy as daffodil day and a waste of water & ice. Everyone knows that the phase will probably only last a few more days and guys like this will be able to rest easy, but why not let MND charities have their time in the spotlight.

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