PATRICK QUINN
Over the last decade, we have seen social media grow rapidly in importance. More than 3.4
billion people actively use social media - that's 45% of the world’s population.
Inevitably these people look up to influencers in social media to guide them with their decision making.
Influencers in social media are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on
a specific topic. These are people who have the ability to affect people’s actions and cause a difference
through their platforms because of their high reach.
Patrick Quinn was an American amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) activist who helped generate
awareness and raised funds for medical research through the Ice Bucket Challenge which was
a viral social media campaign.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a-my-o-TROE-fik LAT-ur-ul skluh-ROE-sis), or ALS, is a progressive nervous
system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control.
Quinn helped draw attention to ALS by co-creating the Ice Bucket Challenge, a video enabled fundraiser,
which went viral and helped generate more than $220m for medical research for the disease.
The challenge went viral in 2014, when celebrities and common people all across the world filmed short
videos of themselves dumping buckets of ice water on their heads, committing to donations for ALS
research, and asking others to do the same. The campaign had over 20 million videos being created and
shared with celebrities including former President George W. Bush, Bill Gates, Justin Bieber, LeBron
James, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lady Gaga, and Oprah Winfrey
Quinn continued his advocacy after the challenge through his foundation "Quinn for the Win," to
generate awareness of the disease and raise funds for research. He continued to speak in forums raising
awareness and conducted the challenge annually every August. He was honored by the ALS
Association with the "ALS Heroes" award in 2015, for his "significant positive impact" on the fight
against ALS. He was also nominated for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for his role in raising
awareness for the disease and promoting research.
Well, I have given you enough reasoning as to why Patrick Quinn should not be thrown off this balloon.
Only the last few words that I would like to say is, anybody with a few thousand followers can become
an influencer today, but there are only a few people who are making good use of their platforms and are
influencing people to actually make a difference in the lives of people around them and are encouraging
people to be kind, to be giving, and to add more meaning to life. Today, Patrick Quinn is not with us, but
the awareness that he raised during his last few moments definitely gave hope, and to many suffering
from ALS, a new life.