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The 22 Pushup Challenge, sometimes called the 22KILL Pushup Challenge, was a social media campaign which involved performing 22 pushups to promote awareness for veteran suicide prevention along with honoring military service members and veterans.
The viral awareness campaign gained traction and started to garner celebrity support and participation in August 2016. Social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter news feeds were inundated with video posts of celebrities doing their 22 pushups and then challenging others, using the hashtag #22pushupchallenge. Participants included actors, pro athletes, musicians, politicians, etc. -- i.e. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Scott Eastwood, Ludacris, J. J. Watt and others have posted videos of themselves doing 22 pushups in support of the cause.
Origin
The original campaign began in 2013 under 22KILL, a veteran nonprofit organization focused on veteran empowerment and suicide prevention. The number "22" is a reference to a report released by the Department of Veteran Affairs in 2012,, which stated that an average of 22 veterans die by suicide each day. The purpose of the pushups is twofold; 1. to raise awareness to the statistic, and 2. to honor military service members, past and/or present.
Initial success
In March of 2014, Julie Hersh, President of The Hersh Foundation and author of Struck By Living, learned about 22KILL and did her 22 pushups while visiting their office. After posting her video, and the amount of attention she received from friends and family, Hersh came up with the idea to start a "challenge" for 22KILL. She pledged to donate $100 for every person who did 22 pushups and posted the video to 22KILL's Facebook page, up to $100,000 (1,000 videos). The timeline given was 1 week, beginning March 28, 2014 and ending April 4, 2014. 22KILL, through its local network of supporters, ended up tripling the goal, getting over 3,000 pushup videos. As promised, they were presented a check for $100,000. Afterwards, 22KILL decided to keep the momentum going by creating its own goal of reaching 22 million pushups, simply to raise awareness to the cause. This was tracked by using the hashtag phrase "#22pushups for #22kill".
Over the next 2 years, pushup videos continued to be posted, adding to the counter little by little. It wasn't until an advocate of 22KILL re-ignited the pushup campaign by starting what has since become the viral #22pushupchallenge, which even has reached military members from other countries including the UK and Australia.
Elements of the campaign
When the challenge first started, it required the person do 22 pushups a day for 22 days, posting a video each day. However, as it continued to grow, the more viral version of the challenge only required the person to do 22 pushups once. Most celebrities saw this version, which is why you will only see one video from them. Some, however, did complete the full 22-day challenge. Actors Jason Statham and Charlie Hunnam, band members of Disturbed, and NFL player Justin Tuck were among those. Regardless of how it was done, the challenge still served its purpose and the ultimate mission of raising awareness.
Similar to the ALS IceBucketChallenge, participants film themselves performing the challenge and then nominate others to do the same. 22 Pushup Challenge was different in that its primary focus was only to raise awareness, and donations were not a requirement.
References
- "22 Push-Up Challenge hopes to save the lives of veterans".
- "Stars support vets through #22PushupChallenge".
- "Chris Evans, Scott Eastwood, The Rock and Others Take 22 Push-Up Challenge".
- "Suicide Data Report, 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-10-04.
- "Hersh Foundation check presentation to HCC / 22KILL".
- Janice Allen (2015-04-03). "Army vet launches '22 push up challenge' to help fellow veterans". Fox17online.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
- Savvas, Laura (27 June 2016). "Hero British amputee soldiers in amazing challenge to combat military suicide".
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