Ice Bucket Challenge comes to SES

The bus drivers started it.

Sisters School District's transportation department took on the Ice Bucket Challenge to fight ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) - then they turned around and passed the challenge to the elementary school teachers.

The drivers took a full load of ice-cold water delivered from a front-loader. The teachers got bucketed by the kids they teach.

The Ice Bucket Challenge "went viral" across the country this summer. Participants are supposed to either accept a challenge or default and make a donation to fight the debilitating disease. Many take both the ice water and make a donation. The campaign has raised millions for ALS research.

The fight against ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is personal at Sisters Elementary School. The father of PE teacher Mark Lamont died two years after diagnosis with ALS. The disease is a motor neuron disease that wastes muscles and eventually results in difficulty speaking, and swallowing and ultimately death, usually within four years of diagnosis.

Teachers, Lamont included, sat in a line on the play field at Sisters Elementary School on Friday, as students assisted Clay Warburton in hoisting buckets over their heads to cascade down in a chilling deluge. Warburton took his bucket at the end.

Lest other school personnel think they are of the hook, Principal Becky Stoughton threw down the gauntlet to the school district administrative staff and the middle school teachers. Surely, within a week or so, every teacher and administrator in the district will have taken a very cold shower - for a cause.