By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — The Ice Bucket Challenge is all over the Internet and one local business not only took the challenge, it took it personally.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a social media craze where individuals pour buckets of ice water over their heads and challenge others to either take the same icy action or donate to the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Association within 24 hours, according to ALSA.org.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie De La Garza
Participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Association at Gallagher Insurance on Aug. 20 were, from left, office manager Elaine Sipe, agent Stacy Robey, agent Jennifer Perreault, owner Brian Sipe and agent Lisa Wilcox.
In the case of Gallagher Insurance Agency employees and the business owner, Brian Sipe, they took the icy challenge and donated money. In the process, they challenged all their fellow insurance agencies in Caribou to take the Ice Bucket Challenge.
“Because in reality, I don’t care if they do the Ice Bucket Challenge — I want them to make a donation,” Sipe explained with wet hair, as he fished an errant ice cube out of his front shirt pocket.
About 22 years ago, his father, Donald J. Sipe, died of ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“The great thing about the Ice Bucket Challenge is that it raises awareness, and everybody’s talking about it,” Brian said on Aug. 20 after taking the challenge himself. “The whole idea is that you’re supposed to then make a contribution and support Lou Gehrig’s disease research.”
Being challenged by his uncle to take the ALS Challenge, Brian brought the idea to his employees earlier in the month and his staff agreed after some initial trepidation.
“I one-upped my uncle and got the whole office to do it,” Brian said with a grin. Though he knows personally that there’s a lot of work to be done on ALS research, the fund-raising challenge was fun.
“It was cold,” Brian admitted, “but it was a nice warm day.”
Participating in the challenge from Gallagher’s Insurance were Brian, his wife and office manager Elaine Sipe, and Agents Stacy Robey, Jennifer Perreault and Lisa Wilcox.
By the end of last week, their Ice Bucket Challenge video had over 4,000 hits on the Gallagher Facebook page.
