Co-founder of ‘The Ice Bucket Challenge’ dives off building; drowns

They say the good die young, which is certainly the case with 27-year-old Corey Griffin’s drowning on Saturday morning.

Griffin was a co-founder of ‘The Ice Bucket Challenge’, in which famous and ordinary folk have buckets of iced water thrown over their heads, or forfeit and donate to charity, with the majority of funds going to the ALS Association. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is the most common of the five debilitating motor neurone diseases.

Ironically, Griffin had just left a charity function for Lou Gehrig’s disease, the event having been hosted to raise money in honour of his friend Pete Frates who was suffering from ALS himself.

It seems Griffin was so upset, that at around 2am he walked up to the top of a building in Nantucket, Massachusetts, dove off into the harbour, before floating to the surface and then sinking to the bottom. He was discovered and pronounced dead at 3am.

Griffin’s father, Robert Griffin, told the ‘Boston Globe’ that his son was tortured by his friend Mr Frates’s ordeal with the incurable disease but also said “he was so happy to be able to help him”.

The Ice Bucket Challenge continues to raise funds for the ALS Association, with recent participants having included David Beckham, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Bill Gates, Vin Diesel, Anna Wintour, even George Bush.

In the US alone, the ALS Association has received over US$23 million in donations over the past 12 months, compared to the US$2 million it received the year prior – before The Ice Bucket Challenge took off.

Rest in Peach, Corey Griffin, and may your legacy live on.  Antonino Tati