Five Reasons You Should Do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Again!

1). All diseases are bad, but I've seen ALS up close and personal for nine years and it is horrific. My partner and husband Randy died in 2014 and he was only 41. He was young and vital and this disease slowly took over and killed him in the cruelest way imaginable. We need to find a cure now.

2). Despite continued research, there is still no cure insight. Whether a person has familiar or sporadic ALS, there needs to be research to determine why this happens. And, if a person gets ALS, we also need research to help determine how we can stop it and ideally repair the damage. It's a very complicated disease and that requires a lot of funding and a lot of research. Plan and simple, your Ice Bucket Challenge can help find a cure.

3). After last year's Ice Bucket Challenge, people with ALS and their families finally have a voice. Now is not the time to lose that voice. On August 1, determine your method, but get a bucket and do it again. Keep that voice loud and strong!

4). Remember that you have a choice as to where your money goes. I am involved with the ALS Association in MA because I know they do good work and they helped Randy and me when we needed it. I also know that ALS TDI is doing amazing things on the research front. So, do some homework now and choose your own non-profit partner to benefit.

5). You can make a positive difference with one act. It happened last year and it can happen again. It is a small thing to do every August, until there's a cure!

Mark Malinowski works in marketing communications and continues to fight ALS, the disease that killed his partner and husband Randy Pipkin.