After lacrosse practice, Lola Aguirre ’26 poured ice cold water from a bucket on Josie Sarno ’26.
Outside of his dorm, Rockwell, Daniel Matloff ’28 participated in the University of South Carolina Speak Your Mind Challenge.
Years later, the Ice Bucket Challenge is back. Over the course of the past week, the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Active Minds Ice Bucket Challenge has taken Andover’s campus by storm.
Active Minds is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting mental health. The challenge originated from USC’s Active Minds club and requires participants to dump a bucket of ice water on their heads in order to raise awareness about mental health. Participants also share the video on social media and “nominate” others to the challenge.
Brinley Davis ’27 was one student who participated in the challenge. She explained how the challenge has quickly spread awareness for mental health across Andover while connecting students.
“It was very fun and I learned about it two weeks ago from my friends at home. It’s a good way to spread awareness, [and] on campus, it’s definitely raised mental health awareness on its own. It’s also increased community bonding and happiness,” said Davis.
As a board member for Andover’s Active Minds Club, Drew Wasylyshyn ’26 has been involved with the national organization since before the trend began. He hoped that the rapid expansion of awareness would encourage schools across the nation to start their own chapters.
“A lot more people know about Active Minds and their mission now. I was looking at the USC chapter’s Instagram page over the last couple of days, and their followers went from 30,000 to 270,000. This initiative has been spreading across the nation like wildfire. It warms my heart. It’s just a simple act that raises awareness,” said Wasylyshyn.
He continued, “I think the ultimate goal would be for more Active Minds chapters to be started nationwide, because so much attention is being drawn to this challenge and the Active Minds organization. I believe many schools that do not have Active Minds chapters will now start to realize, or some students may see it and be like, I would love to start this in my school.’ I think it’d be great. I hope, just like how the challenge spread like wildfire, people starting chapters [will] spread as well.”
