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C-Stores Rise to the Ice Bucket Challenge

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I’m sure you’ve heard about the Ice Bucket challenge.

If you haven’t, it’s a viral phenomenon designed to create awareness of and generate donations for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease—a progressive neurodegenerative ailment that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord that eventually leads to death.

The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on video, posting that video to social media, then nominating others to do the same, all in an effort to raise ALS awareness. People can either accept the challenge or make a donation to an ALS charity of their choice, or do both.

To say it’s caught on is an understatement: as of the end of August over three million donors have contributed over $100 million to the cause. As you might expect, C-stores are in the thick of it, displaying the kind of social consciousness that helps shines a positive light on our industry everywhere.

Jimmy Haslam, CEO of Pilot Flying J, was on hand to participate in the company’s Knoxville, Tennessee store version of the challenge.

Gary Drake, president of the Saratoga Springs, New York-based Stewart’s Shops added his name to the “bucket list” as well.

The Bee Line C-Store in Ellenburg Depot, New York, posted this video of their employees actively engaged in the challenge.

Employees at the Providence, Rhode Island retailer Cumberland Farms—on the other hand—nominated its customers to take part.

The Casey’s store in Vinton, Iowa put their own unique stamp on the event, accepting the challenge and donating the money they collected to the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s summer camp program for children affected by the disease.

Convenience Store News does a nice job of summarizing some of these efforts.

These acts of benevolence provide a perfect example of how our industry contributes to the common good, while raising the general public’s awareness about the giving side of an industry that continues to underscore the importance of giving back. Congratulations to all, including those that we haven’t recognized in this article. Hats off to all of you. You make SSCS and the rest of the industry proud.

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