Ice Bucket Challenge a slam dunk at Eastern Bank

LYNN – Eastern Bank president Bob Rivers took the plunge Wednesday afternoon after he was called out to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by customer and friend Kevin Gosnell, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.”Kevin is more than just a customer, he’s a good friend,” said Rivers. “He challenged me in a video at the beginning of the month.”Gosnell, who founded T & K Asphalt, completed the challenge on Aug. 1 alongside more than 100 employees and their family members. He challenged Rivers and spoke on his own personal experiences and the importance of raising awareness for the disease.ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It affects the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscles throughout the body.”Every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS, and every 90 minutes someone dies from it,” said Nancy Frates, whose son, Peter, was diagnosed three years ago. The Ice Bucket Challenge, which is now slated to become an every-August event, was inspired in part by Frates, who lives in Beverly and is a former St. John’s Prep and Boston College baseball player.”When we found out the reality of it, we found it unacceptable,” Nancy Frates said.Rivers sat in a dunk tank on Wednesday at the Eastern Bank on Market Street and challenged customers and community partners to take the challenge and make a donation.”On behalf of all of my colleagues at Eastern, I accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in honor of my good friend, Kevin Gosnell, at T & K Asphalt,” he said. “And I challenge all of our customers and community partners to join us by going to ALSknights.org, becoming a Knight, and making a donation.”To get us started, the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation will be matching donations up to a total of $10,000,” he said. “Once we hit that mark, John Frates, father of the founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge, will throw a perfect strike and drop me into this bucket of ice.”Eastern Bank has already received commitments for donations, said director of public relations Andy Ravens.”We’re very confident that we will far surpass our goal,” he said. “Our colleagues and customers are very generous.”Before the event even began, Eastern Bank had already met its goal of raising $10,000, Rivers said.”We have already raised $21,000 just by word of mouth,” he said. “We haven’t even put anything out on social media yet.”As promised, buckets of ice were poured into the dunk tank and more than 100 bank employees wearing ALS Knight T-shirts gathered around to watch. John Frates pitched a ball that sent Rivers swimming.The crowd cheered and Rivers popped up, giving others, including his son, the chance to dunk him again.”On behalf of my son, we’re honored that Bob would do this,” said Frates. “Thank-you from the Frate train.”Last summer, the challenge went viral on social media. More than 17 million people uploaded videos of the challenge to Facebook. The videos were watched by more than 440 million people, a total of more than 10 billion times, according to the ALS Association’s website.This year it was determined that fundraising would continue every year until a cure for ALS is found. On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito kicked off “Every August Until A Cure” by taking the Ice Bucket Challenge at the State House.”We’re very happy to bring it back and keep research going until we find a cure,” said Nancy Frates. “We’re so grateful that they’ve joined us in the fight and they’ll stay with us until they figure it out.”