While many called the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral a couple of years ago frivolous “slacktivism,” it has recently become apparent that the movement actually did a lot of good to help push ALS research forward.
The hope is the same with this new challenge – the #22PushupChallenge – but the cause is a little different.
This new challenge calls for participants to do 22 pushups for 22 days to raise awareness about the 22 veterans who commit suicide every day.
Organization 22Kill, which is working to bring awareness about the suicide epidemic and to curb it, is behind the challenge. Their goal is 22 million pushups “to honor those who serve and to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention through education and empowerment.”
To participate in the challenge, people are encouraged to do their pushups (while it’s called the 22 Pushup Challenge, people can do as few or as many pushups as they want) and then post a video of themselves doing the challenge on social media along with the reason they are doing it – whether it is to remember a fallen veteran or just to support our troops.
Several celebrities have already taken on the challenge, including Chris Pratt and Anna Faris, The Rock, Candace Cameron Bure, and Scott Eastwood. The hope is that through this challenge more attention will be brought to what our veterans go through when they come home from war, and that those same veterans will know there are millions of grateful people behind them supporting them to get the help they need.
Do you support our veterans? So share this!