The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has continued to take the nation, including Santa Clarita, by storm.

Last week Charles Helmers Elementary Assistant Principal Dena Rusk challenged Helmers students to help raise money and awareness for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

In a campaign they titled “Chunks of Change”, the students were asked to donate pennies, nickels and dimes, Rusk said.

“You would not believe it, they were bringing in their allowance with dollar bills, five dollar bills, ten dollar bills. They exceeded our expectations more than we could have ever imagined,” she said.

In keeping her promise,Rusk was soaked when an ice cold bucket of water was dumped over her head during a Monday morning assembly.  Watch video here.

“The ice in the bucket was on sale and it’s orange flavored,” she told the students.

Rusk personally accepted the challenge in memory of her high school classmate and friend who lost his battle with ALS last year, he was 47.

Donations to the ALS Association have skyrocketed in 2014, mainly because of the awareness the Ice bucket challenge has raised.  According to the associations website, as of August 25, donations have reached $79.7 million compared to $2.5 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 25).

ALS, amyotophic lateral sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and the spinal chord resulting in paralysis.

Rusk said the school will continue to collect donations through Friday.

“It’s great that everyone has pulled together and realizes the world is bigger than us,” she said.