Co-Founder of Hugely Popular Ice Bucket Challenge Has Died
The man responsible for popularizing the Ice Bucket Challenge has passed away at the age of 37.
Patt Quinn was diagnosed with ALS just one month after he turned 30 years old. The Yonkers, NY man is credited with co-founding the Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness and donations to fight ALS.
After learning he had ALS, Quinn took a cue from his friend, Pete Frates, who also suffered from the disease. Frates who passed away in 2019, had established a group of supporters to help spread awareness of ALS and help raise funds. According to a release from the ALS Foundation Quinn began his own group called "Quinn For The Win." That's when the two teams decided to join forces and get their message out to a wider audience.
The two men didn't invent the Ice Bucket Challenge but videos of them participating in it helped propel the movement, which went viral in the summer of 2014. Another Hudson Valley man, Anthony Senerchia Jr., is credited with giving Quinn and Frates the original idea to dump ice on their heads to gain attention about the cause. Senerchia teamed up with golfer Chris Kennedy to refocus a silly internet challenge the athlete was asked to participate in and use it as a tool to spread the word about ALS. Senerchia passed away from ALS in 2017 at the age of 46.
Aside from his participation in the Ice Bucket Challenge, Kennedy made news in 2018 for being the first person in the world to benefit from "Project Revoice." The technological breakthrough allows those who've lost the ability to speak from ALS to be able to talk once again using their own voice. With the help of recordings from Kennedy's many interviews about the Ice Bucket Challenge, technicians were able to clone his voice and allow him to speak using a computer.