Mayor Marty Walsh Took on the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’

City Councilor Michael Flaherty did it with a hydraulic excavator.

Dan Koh, Mayor Marty Walsh’s chief of staff, did it on the steps of City Hall Plaza wearing a fancy suit, polished brown shoes, and a tie.

Then Koh challenged Walsh—his boss—who did it in the backyard with two people standing over his head.

All of them have taken part in the “ice bucket challenge,” an online sensation that has leveraged social media and gone viral to raise awareness and money to fund research for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative illness that attacks the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

The premise started as a way to show support for Peter Frates, a 29-year-old former Division I Boston College baseball captain who was diagnosed with the rare disease a little more than two years ago.

The “challenge,” where participants take a bucket of ice water and dump it over their head while the camera rolls, started between Frates and his wife and then moved to a circle of friends close to the couple.

In just a few weeks it has made it all the way to Patriots notable Julian Edelman, been accepted by numerous television news anchors, a few Bruins players, police, firefighters, and all but taken over people’s Facebook feeds and Twitter streams.

The challenge isn’t just about raising awareness through a viral trend, though. Participants who brave the cold water as it runs down their backs donate money to ALS research, and call on as many people as they want to either withstand a splash of water within 24 hours of being named, or put $100 down to go toward Frates’ cause. This way, the chain keeps moving across the Internet.

So who are we waiting on to post videos next? Well, Edelman has name-dropped teammates Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady, and Walsh has put the spotlight on some reporters—including Boston’s own David Bernstein.

Get those buckets and cameras ready.