What do NBA star LeBron James, principal Tobie Waldeck, senior Kat White and junior Clayton Holmberg all have in common?

They are just a few of the millions of people to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball captain, was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and started this challenge. He wanted to raise the awareness of ALS and how it is under-funded, and asked his friends to take videos of them dumping buckets of ice water on their heads and post the videos on social media sites. If they didn’t take on the challenge within 24 hours, they had to donate to the ALS Association. This, in turn, started the phenomenon that is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

ALS affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It also causes motor neurons to progressively degenerate, and when these neurons die, it leads to total paralyzation, and ultimately, death.

While many people solely take part in the challenge to dump freezing water on their heads, others actually participate to help raise awareness and money. ALS raised $2.5 million all of last year, and as of Monday, Aug. 25, because of the challenge, the cause has raised over $80 million.

Mill Valley students, teachers and coaches were nominated to partake in the challenge, including robotics, Mill Valley News, girls golf and the administrative team.

“[The cheer team] got nominated by the dance team,” senior cheerleader Halie Breninger said. “We thought it was for a good cause and it was fun. I thought it was pretty cool how many people participate in it…It’s not very time-consuming, so it’s nice to see people supporting.”

Along with teammates doing the challenge, students also participated individually.

“[I did the ALS challenge] just to raise awareness. [I think] it’s important because it raises awareness for what ALS is, and it’s raised so much money,” Holmberg said. “I think [the challenge] can’t get more popular than it is now. I wouldn’t say it’s overdone, but everyone knows what it is now.”

While some teams and students were challenged by their friends, head football coach Joel Applebee said his players asked the football coaching staff to take on the challenge.

“Obviously it’s for a very good purpose, and once we got all the challenges…we [just did it] as a coaching staff. [We wanted] to have fun, you know, and at the same time put out the awareness of the whole thing,” Applebee said.

The coaching staff decided not only to do the challenge, but donate to the association as well. The staff’s total ended up at $110, but the players’ parents matched their donation, so the final donation was $220.

“How can [the challenge] be [a bad thing], you know, when it’s for a great cause? Even if, you know…there’s some people who don’t donate,” Applebee said. “It’s great that people are understanding and finding out what this disease is all about, and it can only be a good thing if people know about it.”