“You have 24 hours to respond.” An almost menacing warning given seconds before tons of ice cold water are ruthlessly dumped on someone’s head. A new trend has been circulating across social media lately, but what exactly is the USC MIND (University of South Carolina Mental Illness Needs Discussion) “Speak Your Mind” ice bucket challenge, and why has everyone been subjecting themselves to ice cold conditions?
USC MIND is a club from the University of South Carolina that works to bring light to mental illnesses and improve health. They began the challenge with Active Minds, a nonprofit that works to raise awareness about mental health in teenagers, in an attempt to create an environment where people can feel comfortable talking about mental health issues.
The rules of the challenge are simple: The person says who they were nominated by, nominates two to five people of their own, states that the nominees have 24 hours to respond and finally has someone dump ice cold water on them. Then, they share the video, tagging the USC MIND instagram or adding the hashtag #SpeakYourMIND.
While some people stayed simple, just pouring a normal bucket of water on their head, others read the fine print in the USC MIND post: “Get creative.” Some people took this to heart, finding inventive new ways to do the challenge. People have gone so far as to fill up the shovels of backhoes with water and use that as a bucket, dumping seemingly endless amounts of water all over the nominee. One student at Green Hope, Elliot Bratcher (‘25), went above and beyond and decided to do the challenge in a way that was completely out of the ordinary.
Bratcher did his challenge in the Green Hope wetland while volunteering, choosing to forgo clean water and use the source he already had. After nominating two friends and his brother, he had a friend douse him in the muddy, silty water from the wetland. The GH Falcon sat down with Bratcher after this unconventional yet eye-catching approach to the challenge to hear his thoughts on the recent trend.
When asked what he thought the purpose of the challenge was, he stated it in clear and simple terms, “The point of the USC MIND challenge is to spread awareness about mental health by making people pour a bucket of water on themselves. It’s not meant to completely fix the issues, but instead make them more talked about and normalized.”
Despite the overall positive presented with this challenge, some people have had their issues with it. In 2014, there was a very similar ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. People have said that the USC MIND challenge is just a copy of that, or have stated that people just want to get attention by doing the trend and don’t care about raising awareness.
Bratcher added his opinion on the proclaimed issues with the challenge, and stated, “I think [the USC MIND challenge] was created with good intentions, but it’s overshadowed by the ALS ice bucket challenge from a couple years back. Most people don’t think of it as its own trend but instead a copy of that one.” He also discussed why he thinks people are actually participating in the trend. “There’s an aspect of wanting to meet the expectations of being nominated with your friends, but I think there’s also an element of wanting to spread awareness.”
While some people may not think the challenge is effective or may be done for the wrong purposes, it is undeniable that the challenge has gained traction on social media at an incredible rate, spreading across communities all over the United States. It will remain to be a fun trend with the noble purpose of raising awareness for mental health, helping people feel comfortable talking about mental health issues nationwide.
