You could just scroll down to the fun part. But we hope you'll read this first, because this part is really what it's all about.
ALS recently claimed a member of our family. Maud, sister-in-law of our Master Chocolatier Christophe, lived with ALS until June 26, 2014. Her loss was shocking and devastating, and it happened sooner than anyone was even expecting. She left behind a grieving husband, children, extended family, friends, and a profound absence.
ALS is a terrible neurological disease that robs otherwise healthy people of muscle strength and coordination, then mobility, then the ability to breathe unassisted, and finally, life itself. It strikes almost at random, with 90-95% of sufferers having no family history of the disease. There is no cure yet.
It's hard to "make your own happiness" (as we like to say at Voilà Chocolat) around anything involving ALS. But then came along...the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! Our Creative Director Brandon issued us the challenge, and we took it!
We are proud to support our colleague and perversely delighted to soak ourselves in ice water, while also helping to find treatments and a cure for ALS. Along with our chilling and thrilling video, we are contributing $150 to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a non-profit biotechnology research organization dedicated to developing effective treatments for ALS.
In so doing, we also issued a challenge to all the other chocolatiers of NYC.
So enjoy this video. This is the one time you will see us mix water with chocolate!
p.s. We have heard some complaints about the fact that our resident competitive surfer, Florian, wore his wetsuit during this challenge. We agree that was totally cheating. That is why we did shove a massive ice cube down the back of that wetsuit shortly after this video was taken. Injustice resolved.
You're still reading? Ok, you deserve some outtakes:
TMI
