The Cold Water Challenge

by Just Juan
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So there’s this hot phenomenon sweeping across social media called the Cold Water Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to contribute funds to a charity of your choice while having some good-spirited fun as the weather heats up around the nation. A couple of the charities that seem to be benefitting most is the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I became aware of the social media phenomenon in early May and I looked at the rules, which were as follows according to The Fire Critic:

  1. You are nominated to complete the challenge by someone who has done just that
  2. You have 24 hours to complete the challenge AND donate $10 to the charity of choice, as defined under the terms of the person who challenged you
  3. If you are unable to complete the challenge, you donate an amount of money as defined by the person who challenged you, usually a figure multiplied a few times over
  4. If you complete the challenge, upload the video footage to a social media website AND challenge up to 5 more individuals of your choice

On June 8th, I was called out by one of my old Air Force colleagues, Larturo McMahan. It was definitely done at the behest of his wife. The thing about it though is he called out about 30 people, far more than the maximum number of 5. I was the very last person he called out. I told him of that little fact and he said he only called me out because he wife said “don’t forget about Juan”. He let me off the hook but I did tell myself way back in May that I’d do it if I was challenged. So I told him that once I came off the road from business, I’d do the challenge. Today was my first opportunity to do it.

I was actually excited to do it. Very rarely would you find me turning away from a chance to contribute to a charitable cause while having a great time doing so. I arranged to do the challenge at my father’s house, which provided my father a rare opportunity to have some fun at my expense with the last such time being the surprise going away party just over 7 years ago. I decided to contribute to the National Endowment of the Arts, which is a passion of mine being that I’m a lover of the arts. I also decided to contribute to the Worth The Wait Revolution, which is a DC-based organized movement promoting sexual purity.

The best part of it was the 5 people I got to call out: (1) my 1st Air Force supervisor, (2) my best friend and future best man, (3) a friend who tried to play matchmaker on me, (4) one of my fantasy football rivals, and (5) the person who stole my Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies 5 years ago.

Anyway, the footage is below. Enjoy…

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