Last Saturday’s weather was hot and clear for most of Fountain Hills but, if you happened to be hanging around the Fountain Park amphitheater at 11 a.m., then the forecast called for sudden downpours of freezing water and ice.

About 50 participants made it out to the Great Fountain Hills Ice Bucket Challenge on Aug. 23, helping raise funds in honor of Tony Fiandaca for ALS research.

Tony rests at the heart of Tony’s Team: Making It Happen, a group organized by his wife, Diana, and dedicated to the advancement of ALS research. When family friend Jennifer Marcell saw the success of recent ice bucket challenges online, she decided to contact Tony and Diana and organize Fountain Hills’ big event.

For the uninitiated, the challenge is pretty simple: Either donate $100 (or a figure of your choosing) to ALS research or dump a bucket of ice water on your head. No matter which route you go, you may then call out three other individuals to take on the challenge. Having raised more than $60 million as of this writing, it’s clear that the fad has taken hold and provided tremendous support for the cause.

Many folks are both dumping and donating…

“We saw it on TV and online, and then Jennifer Marcell started to get this organized here in town on Facebook,” Diana said.

Marcell said that, when she was challenged herself, she decided to kick it up a notch and challenge the whole town.

“When Jennifer got this rolling, I jumped in and said, okay, let’s do this,” Diana added.

“So we decided to do it in honor of my husband, Tony, who was diagnosed with ALS last year.

“We’re all looking forward to this event. We’ve already had lots of donations and people buying T-shirts, so we’re excited.”

Along with many of Tony’s Team members, the event was attended by family and friends of the Fiandaca family, community members and Fountain Hills firefighters. Fountain Hills Water and Ice was also on hand to, appropriately enough, provide the water and ice for the challenge.

“Tony and his wife let us know about the event and we love to support our patients,” said Taryn Lorey, executive director of the ALS Association Arizona Chapter.

She and many of her colleagues were out for the event.

“It’s for a great cause and we love seeing all of the ice bucket challenges, so of course we had to come out,” she added.

Lorey said the ALS Association was blown away when the trend kicked off, as nobody thought it would reach the heights to which is has now climbed.

“We saw a few coming from back East at first, and then it just took off and spread,” she continued.

“We’ve loved every minute of it. ALS has been an underrepresented disease and people just don’t know a lot about it, so this has really brought the awareness.”

Lorey said that she’s hoping to see all of this success lead to more treatment options, medications and new drug development and, eventually, a cure.

As for the man of the hour, Tony Fiandaca, he said he was very pleased to see so many people come out and take part in the event.

“I was shocked,” Fiandaca said.

“I really appreciate all of this support. From me, I appreciate it a lot, but also for all of the proceeds that will support ALS.”

Tony said he has received a lot of support over the past year of dealing with ALS himself, and events like this help ensure that the support will keep on coming.

“We want to defeat this illness,” Tony said.

“Maybe not for me, but for the future. It’s all we can do.”