Neknomiwhat?
Recently, a somewhat silly movement has been spreading like a virus on social media sites: Neknominations.
What is a neknomination? It is a pointless random action which basically requires individuals to film themselves while “necking” (quickly ingesting) a rather large quantity of alcohol, then nominate another person to do the same within 24 hours. In other words, it’s a dare.
The online drinking game which allegedly originated with a video Ross Samson, a London Rugby star, posted on Facebook, has been vastly criticized because of its possible lethal consequences. So far, 5 deaths have been attributed to the game.
Like everything else, it has made its way to our town.
About 4 weeks ago, I started seeing the hashtag #Neknomination on my facebook stream. For about a week, notifications were popping everywhere. Curious, I got to see a few of my friends drinking bottles of beer in the snow or while doing cartwheels. I watched one or two videos, then stopped even paying attention because of how silly, not to mention dangerous, I thought it was.
Then, something magical happened.
After the Bowl For Kids event held by Big Brothers and Big Sisters, something new started popping out on my stream: Donation Nominations. This version of the game turns drinking into random acts of kindness, a much better take on the whole concept if you ask me.
The originator of the movement in the region was apparently Mr. Patrick Larose, who started it all with the Agape Centre and moved on from there. With the hashtag #donationnomination, the city of Cornwall has been swept by good deeds ranging from supporting a favourite charity financially to donating time to a valuable cause. We, the Seeker Chicks, were tagged in a nomination ourselves, and chose to support the Boys and Girls club by buying 10 pink shirts for pink shirt day, that we in turn donated to our readers. You can see the video on our website.
I love it when people turn negative into positive. If more people were like that, can you imagine all the good that could be done? And that’s my challenge for you this week. I nominate every living soul in Cornwall to do a random act of kindness. #DonationNominationCornwall.
“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.”
-Peace Pilgrim
Julia Lucio
Editor In Chief