BRIDGEPORT — The ice bucket challenge, an online fundraising campaign for ALS research that's become a nonstop viral sensation, is coming to one of the city's oldest taverns.
Residents are invited to Schaller's Pump, 3714 S. Halsted St. for a fundraiser on Sunday, when the tavern owners' friends and family will gather in the parking lot for a great big chain reaction of frosty fun.
Anyone can join.
In fact, more than 100 people have already committed.
"We have a pretty good-sized family and we didn't want to be calling each other out, so we were talking about it and kind of made a family thing out of it. It's kind of snowballed. It's gotten quite big," said Kim Schaller, who helps run the bar and restaurant.
Each participant will pay a $10 donation, with the money headed to fighting Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The event takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday but registration will begin at 1 p.m.
Leading it all off will be Jack Schaller, the tavern's 90-year-old owner.
"His bucket will be filled with cotton balls. We're not going to do that to him. We're making him pay though," she said.
Schaller's Pump is billed as the oldest licensed liquor establishment in Chicago.
In business since 1881, the bar has been called a second office for the city's old-school political powerbase — the 11th ward Democratic headquarters are right across the street — so you never know who might show up on Sunday.
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