For Garmt | The Hot Pepper Challenge for ALS
Please join me in taking the Hot Pepper Challenge to raise funds and awareness for ALS research. Eat a hot pepper, nominate 3 of your friends, and donate whatever you can at the link below: https://www.gofundme.com/alshotpepperchallenge *NOTE: EAT HOT PEPPERS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Please be over 18. Here s why I m starting this challenge. Garmt van Soest was an early fan of Binging with Babish. He reached out when I only had a few thousand subscribers, offering me encouragement, ideas, and inspiring words. He even gave me the idea for the Big Kahuna Burger episode from Pulp Fiction. Garmt was also suffering from the later stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS - he wrote a blog where he detailed his experience, peppered with a humor, positivity, and bravery. He started fundraisers, spoke at events, and continually inspired and enlivened everyone around him, including myself. Garmt died on Monday, October 23rd. He messaged me on Friday to say goodbye - I openly wept in the airport TGI Friday s, asked him if there was anything I could do, if I could come visit before he left us - he wanted to spend his last few days with his loving family. He only wanted to tell me "thank you one last time for the joy of cooking you shared with me and the world...and I m pissed that I got no credit in your book! :D". Even at the end, he could crack a joke. Garmt inspired and continues to inspire people all over the globe, and after watching him take the ice bucket challenge back in 2014 (https://youtu.be/dKSB1_enQWE) , he s inspired me to take that campaign in a different direction - the hot pepper challenge. The concept is the same - nominate your friends and family to endure, instead of a bucket of ice water, a pepper as hot as they can handle - the hotter the pepper, the less money they re required to donate. No matter what, each nominee must nominate 3 others to take the challenge. I hope that this will help raise funds and awareness for the ALS Association, a great organization doing important work researching the disease. Moreover, I hope that I can play a small part in helping to spread Garmt s message of strength and hope. Please share! Challenge Guidelines: Anaheim Pepper: $20 minimum donation Jalapeno Pepper: $10 minimum donation Habanero Pepper: $5 minimum donation Anything Spicer: $0 minimum donation + Nominate 3 friends
