“My name is Jahrie Houle, and I was nominated for the USC Speak Your Mind ice bucket challenge.”
I found myself saying these words on camera last week moments before willingly being drenched in gallons of cold water. This was not on my 2025 bingo card.
This challenge was started by the University of South Carolina (USC) to raise awareness for mental health. For the past several days, it has flooded the Instagram stories of nearly everyone I follow, most of them being Oyster River High School (ORHS) students. The criterion for participating is simple: if you are nominated, you record yourself getting ice water dumped on your head. Then, you nominate 2-5 other people, and go about your day, knowing you’ve done something for a good cause.
One of the first people from ORHS who participated in the challenge was Sid Sanjay (’27). He says, “My friend from another school nominated me. I thought it was a cool cause and imagined it’d be fun to spread it around our school.”
While the challenge seems lighthearted in nature, the true purpose is to raise suicide awareness through USC’s mental health team.
In my own light research that I conducted prior to posting my video, I learned that the proceeds from the Speak Your Mind challenge go towards the nonprofit Active Minds, a mental health advocacy organization which according to their website Activeminds.org is “committed to spreading hope and saving lives.”
The ice bucket challenge has brought a large amount of attention to the program, having raised upwards of $240,000 since its launch according to USC’s “USC MIND club’s mental health awareness challenge goes viral.”
“Even though it is such a heavy topic, it’s a fun way to bring awareness to it,” says Eliza Sekera (‘26), an active member of ORHS’s own mental health team. “Even people just tagging [the] USC mind [account] is bringing so much awareness to them.”
Dylan Dulac (’26), another early ORHS participant says, “Mental health always [flies] under the radar, so spreading awareness by getting everyone in the school to [participate] is really awesome.” However, he points out that many people complete the challenge without being fully informed, or simply because their friends are doing it. He shares, “[at first] I didn’t know why it was made or the real purpose behind it.”
Sanjay agrees and states that in his experience, the ice bucket challenge was treated more as a fun activity to do with friends rather than a true fundraiser. He says, “people know it’s a good cause, but it’s more seen of as a joke now.”
That said, Sekera highlights that exposure is exposure, regardless of the intentions behind it. “The cause might not be the reason everyone is doing it…but they are making an impact by tagging and reposting [the USC mind account] and it’s bringing awareness to the cause even inadvertently.”
This isn’t the first time a challenge like this has circulated the internet either. Just over a decade ago, the 2014 ALS ice bucket challenge went viral in which millions of people including celebrities and politicians alike drenched themselves in freezing water to raise funds and awareness for the progressive neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Erinn Doherty (‘25) chose not to participate this time around and shared an interesting perspective. “[In the original challenge] the whole point of the ice bucket was to symbolize that frozen feeling in your body because ALS slowly paralyzes you… It’s amazing to raise mental health awareness but there’s a million different ways we can do that. The ice bucket challenge was so specific to ALS because of that connection.”
While the USC mind challenge may not hold the same symbolism as the ALS version, there’s no denying that the newly famed Speak Your Mind ice bucket challenge has provided funding and exposure to the Active Minds organization and sparked meaningful conversations surrounding mental health awareness.
To learn more about USC mind’s mission, go to Activeminds.org.
If you or someone you know needs help, dial 988 for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline, formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. You can also reach NAMI NH’s Information & Resource Line at 1-800-242-6264.
-Jahrie Houle
Images courtesy of various ORHS students and USC mind on Instagram
Mouth of the River 
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