We had to join the craze. It's cheaper than hula hoops. And it's for a great cause (see more below). Our First Banana did the honors.
Under the rules of the challenge, the great community-minded folks at Cardinal Bank poured ice on themselves, then tagged our namesake publisher. He then did it, and got to tag three more folks, whom he called pillars of DC business and philanthropy: Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, and sports team owner Ted Leonsis. We heard from David immediately that he's already been proud to join with Mike Bloomberg and (Bloomberg CEO) Dan Doctoroff to give $25M to ALS, so we say, Thank you, David, for your astounding generosity, and you are hereby off the hook. Katharine also responded immediately that she is happy to jump in! We're sure we'll hear from Ted shortly—like the others, he's one of the busiest yet most gracious people on the planet. Meantime, we redirect the Rubenstein challenge to our friend Jose Andres, the world-renowned DC chef also known for devotion to good causes—and fun.
The cause is to give visibility, and money, to researching and conquering ALS—the disease that remains almost as mysterious today as it did when Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with it in 1939 (and died two years later at age 37). It's the one that afflicts Stephen Hawking as well. As those of you in the Twitterverse know, celebs have been pouring themselves (literally) into this challenge the past few days. (And thanks to our great videographer, Igor Dmitry, for his skill and support of the cause.) Here's a sampling:
Mark Zuckerberg
Bill Gates
Steven Spielberg
Jeff Bezos
Oprah Winfrey
Justin Timberlake
LeBron James
Lady Gaga
If you're interested in donating, here's a link. Have you or your company participated in the challenge? We'd love to see. Let DC reporter Chris Baird know.
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