Hotel staff gather after taking on the ice bucket challenge. PICTURES: Najeer Feroke
By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter
More than 100 employees and guests of Wyndham Grand Regency Doha participated yesterday in the #ALSIceBucketChallenge, which aims to raise awareness on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Wyndham Grand Regency Food and Beverages (F&B) director Eman Abela told Gulf Times that at least 25 hotel guests joined the group, composed mostly of employees and executive teams of Wyndham and its sister property, Ramada Encore Hotel.
The participants gathered under the afternoon sun in front of the hotel and poured buckets of water filled with ice over their heads.
But, after getting soaked with ice-cold water, the group was surprised when additional buckets of water and ice were poured on them by staff standing on the balcony of the hotel.
“We did not inform all the participants that we had additional buckets of ice and water waiting for them on the second floor after they had completed the challenge. So, a lot of people really got wet today,” Abela said.
He said after getting the nod of hotel executives for the challenge, fliers were distributed among guests. He said the initiative was part of the hotel’s active participation in charitable activities.
Last year, he added, the entire F&B team had donated a day’s salary to Qatar Red Crescent. The team was able to raise more than QR7,000.
When asked about his reaction to online criticism against the ALS ice bucket challenge, Abela maintained that the activity does not promote water wastage.
“This is done for a good cause. While there is water involved, the amount used (for the challenge) is very minimal,” he stressed.
Prior to the event, Abela said he posted a flier about the hotel’s participation in the challenge on his Twitter account. “I tweeted one of the fliers and nobody from Doha reacted adversely to it.”
He claimed that the number of people who participated in the event made it the biggest group in Doha to take on the challenge yet.
Further, according to Abela, no one had asked the hotel to participate in the charity event. “But we are challenging other hotels to do the same to raise awareness on ALS,” he said.
Since being posted online in July this year, the #ALSIceBucketChallenge or #icebucketchallenge has gone viral with millions of dollars being raised and donated to various ALS charities.
High-profile names such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, as well as Hollywood celebrities, have helped raise awareness on the debilitating neurodegenerative disease, which affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.