Chamber staff dumps on boss who asked for it

It was a chilling experience,” quipped John Tayer, president and chief executive of the Boulder Chamber, “but my staff relished the opportunity to prove that I’m all wet.”

So on a warm Aug. 15, Tayer stood outside the Chamber’s front door, yelled “Bring it!” to the conspirators on the balcony above, and took the “Ice Bucket Challenge” to help raise awareness for the Rocky Mountain chapter of the ALS Foundation and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

About 30,000 Americans now have ALS, which attacks nerve cells and ultimately leads to total paralysis, although the mind remains sharp. Life expectancy is typically two to five years after diagnosis.

The social-media marketing and fundraising phenomenon has taken off this summer. People get ice water dumped on themselves, post the video online and then challenge someone else to do the same within 24 hours or donate $100 to the ALS foundation. Many do both.

People have shared more than 1.2 million videos on Facebook between June 1 and Aug. 13. As of Aug. 17, according to the foundation, it had received $13.3 million in donations since July 29, compared with $1.7 million during the same period last year.

The staff of McGuckin Hardware soaked themselves, then challenged Tayer, who in turn challenged Boulder County commissioners.

Usually the victim gets doused with a single bucket, but this is Boulder, home to the New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge, “so we had to give it a Boulder flavor,” Tayer said, and involve not one but six buckets. “McGuckin’s graced us with enough buckets to do the damage, but we used our own manual labor – and a little bit of sadism.” The Chamber staff dumped ice water on themselves and then announced to Tayer, “You’re next!”
“You think you’re ready and you know it’s coming,” Tayer said, “but it hit me pretty hard.”

Viewers of the resulting video on the Chamber’s Facebook page will note that Tayer is in full business attire. “The wool suit isn’t recoverable,” he said, “but it’s worth it for the cause.”

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