Oh man, this is a really tragic. We just recently came to hear about the Ice Bucket Challenge that is taking social media by storm, only to learn that Corey Griffin, one of the men behind the viral charity craze, has drowned.
We’ve seen the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Iyanla Vanzant, Kerry Washington, Zoe Saldana and all kinds of sports stars and musicians take the challenge that has raised millions of dollars for ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease – which makes this news especially poignant.
Griffin, 27, had just attended a fundraiser for ALS on Friday and helped raise $US100,000 in honor of his friend Pete Frates, whose struggle with the disease inspired the Ice Bucket Challenge and turned it into a viral craze, according to the Boston Globe.
At about 2am, Griffin dove off a building at Straight Wharf in Nantucket before floating to the surface and then sinking without a trace.
Colin Perry, an off-duty Nantucket lifeguard, managed to recover Griffin from the bottom of the harbor; but he was pronounced dead at 3am after being taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
Griffin’s father, Robert Griffin, told the Boston Globe that his son was tortured by his friend Peter’s ordeal with the incurable neurodegenerative disease and vowed to help.
“He was so happy to be able to help him,” Mr Griffin said.
Griffin was a former Bain Capital LLC manager. He raised more than $100,000 for the ALS Association in the past week through the Ice Bucket Challenge.
He died after jumping from the roof of a two-story building into Nantucket Harbor, according to Carlos Moreira, a police spokesman. No other details were provided. Michael Greeley, a friend of Griffin’s and family spokesman, said he suffered two crushed vertebrae in the accident.
Diving off the building on Straight Wharf that was once home to the Juice Guys store that became Nantucket Nectars “is kind of a rite of passage” on the island, said Tiffany Lee, a bartender at the local Chicken Box restaurant. “I have tons of friends who have done it.”
The Ice Bucket Challenge was inspired by Griffin’s friend, Pete Frates, a former captain of the Boston College baseball team who struggled with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The challenge involved dumping buckets of ice water over the heads of famous athletes and other celebrities. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
About Post Author
