Ice Bucket Challenge: Man Dies Celebrating Viral Fundraiser’s Success

Ice Bucket Challenge participants have raised more than $100,000 (directly) since taking to social media, and the ALS Association attributes more than $11.6 million in additional donations to the campaign since the first of the year.

However, on Saturday, the viral fundraising sensation inadvertently caused the death of one.

Corey Griffin, 28, was described as a friend of “Team FrateTrain,” the originators of the movement to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

Griffin’s friend Pete Frates was diagnosed with the deadly and debilitating disease in 2012. His family launched the Ice Bucket Challenge as a way of gathering support and raising funds and awareness.

From there, the campaign exploded on social media leading numerous celebrities, business, and media professionals, such as Bill Gates and Jim Cramer to “take the challenge” themselves.

All of these efforts culminated in the Ice Bucket Challenge raising $100,000 for Team FrateTrain, but Saturday night, hours after surpassing the goal, NBC News reports that Corey Griffin “dove from a Nantucket building into the water below, where he resurfaced briefly before slipping to the floor of the harbor.”

An off-duty life guard rescued Griffin from the water, and police attempted to resuscitate him upon arrival, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3 a.m., Nantucket police said.

“Team FrateTrain lost a good friend today, Corey Griffin,” Pete Frates wrote on his Facebook page Sunday. “He worked his butt off these last few weeks for ALS.”

In a separate report from the Boston Globe:

Corey Griffin was ecstatic when he called his father Friday night from Nantucket Island. The 27-year-old had just raised $100,000 to fight ALS in honor of his friend, Pete Frates, whose struggle with the disease turned the Ice Bucket Challenge into a viral sensation.

“He was the happiest guy in the world,” Corey’s father, Robert Griffin, said of his son. “He called me last night and told me he was in paradise.”

Hours later, at about 2 a.m. Saturday, Griffin dove into the water from the “Juice Guys” building on Straight Wharf, according to a statement from Nantucket police. He floated to the surface, then he sank. He did not come up again.

This is such a tragedy, and The Inquisitr would like to send its heartfelt condolences to the family of Corey Griffin as well as Team FrateTrain. Also, we wish continued success to those of you who are stepping up and taking the Ice Bucket Challenge.

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]