While the Ancient Greek storyteller Aesop likely wasn’t talking about an Ice Bucket Challenge when he wrote, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,” the statement rang true this summer when people all over the world dumped water on their heads to help combat a horrific disease.

Peter Frates and his friends began challenging each other to the Ice Bucket Challenge mostly for a good laugh -- but also to raise funds and awareness for ALS, the disease from which Frates suffers. The group had no idea the small act of nonsensical altruism would create a chain reaction throughout the world, and in a matter of weeks, ALS researchers have exponentially more funds to go toward researching a cure for the incurable disease that affects 30,000 Americans.

Today, around 3 million people, including Bill Gates, George W. Bush, Charlie Sheen and Kermit the Frog, have partaken in the challenge, all to support the ALS Association, which raises money to research amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (AKA Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Those 3 million people have raised nearly $150 million in a matter of seven weeks.

The family and friends of Frates, a 29-year-old former Boston College baseball star who was diagnosed two years ago, spearheaded the simple yet attention-getting act. The disease has now progressed significantly in Frates, who is now paralyzed, eats through a feeding tube and cannot talk.

“At first, it was this small thing among friends and everyone was having a great time doing it,” said John Frates, Peter’s father. That was in mid-July, and by “that second weekend, this thing really exploded on the national level.”

Frates said that his son has been plugged into the Boston professional sports scene for several years, and it was those connections that brought the challenge to the forefront when many of Boston’s athletes and local media participated in the campaign. After that, it was everywhere, which Frates called nothing less than miraculous.

The campaign has certainly seen its share of critics, being called a gimmicky, innocuous challenge, but the numbers speak for themselves. In the two-week span when the Ice Bucket Challenge began, from July 29^th to August 14^th, the ALS Association collected $7.6 million, compared with $1.4 million during the same period in 2013.

“The word gratitude doesn’t do enough to express what we are feeling right now,” ALS President and CEO Barbara Newhouse said in a statement.

The ALS Association is now in talks with doctors and researchers – and the Frates – to discuss how to best use the exponential amount of money that has come in to the organization. In response to questions as to where all the money will go, ALSA has promised total transparency in the process.

“Most of it is all under confidential agreements, but I can say that medicines and therapies they had in the pipeline that might have taken years to actually get funding are now getting funded immediately,” said Frates, who was in Washington D.C. to discuss plans for the money with scientists from all over the world.

“It’s truly a miracle,” he added.

And yet, the Ice Bucket Challenge certainly isn’t nearly the first act of simple kindness, activism and altruism that spread quickly and passionately for a good cause. #YesAllWomen was a hashtag first used on Twitter in response to the 2014 Isla Vista killings, in which 22-year-old Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured 13 before committing suicide in Santa Barbara, California. YouTube videos revealed that Rodger performed such violence to punish women for rejecting him.

Soon after the news hit, #YesAllWomen surfaced on Twitter, where women all over the world shared their stories of violence and misogyny against women. Within four days, the hashtag had been tweeted 1.2 million times.

“#YesAllWomen was spontaneous and totally not planned,” said Kaye M., the creator of the hashtag. “The hashtag came out of my own anger and frustration and grief.

“A lot of people have asked me how I think #YesAllWomen went viral,” she continued. “I think it was the openness of the hashtag name. … I think it did prove to many who weren't aware that violence against women is a daily, tangible issue.”

As with the Ice Bucket Challenge, several celebrities quickly got on board with the movement. Kaye M. said Kerry Washington was the first famous person to get a hold of the hashtag. Washington wrote: “I’ve been off twitter all day… Just now reading the #YesAllWomen tweets. Powerful. Very powerful.”

Kaye M. also said, “Margaret Atwood participating was amazing,” and “Joyce Carol Oates and Nancy Pelosi were two others that just made me go, ‘Wow.’”

The driving force behind #YesAllWomen was that united emotion, a determination to speak out and make a change for the better, Kaye M. added.

“When you want to be heard, and you know there are others who feel like you, it goes a long way in participation and speaking up,” she said.

That unifying voice was also the success behind the NOH8 campaign, a photo project that began in response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8 in 2009, in which the legalization of same-sex marriage was struck down. Photographer Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley took the first photo on a whim in their home as a silent protest toward the decision, going down to the local pharmacy to buy duct tape and using Crayola paint to draw on the NOH8 symbol that has been seen everywhere.

“People were calling it Proposition Hate, so we wanted to incorporate that and use tape over our mouths to express our feelings of being silenced,” said Parshley, who said they took the photo because they wanted a profile picture for themselves that responded to the state’s Prop. 8 decision.

Since that first piece of duct tape nearly six years ago, NOH8 has become a worldwide sensation, in which people all over the world mimic the photo as a way to stand for LGBT rights and marriage equality.

“It goes beyond the LGBT community, though,” said Parshley. “It’s really about anti-bullying and human rights for everyone.”

The NOH8 campaign travels the country holding events and informing the public about their message. They also help to find local services for people who may be struggling with isolation. Five years since its inception, the campaign has grown to nearly 33,000 faces. The campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians and expanded to politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists and celebrities.

“What’s been the greatest part is finding people who may feel alone in their struggle and then they come to an event and see hundreds of other people who believe in them and support them,” said Parshley. “It helps put it all in perspective and makes them feel less isolated.”

It is that feeling of being less alone that is perhaps the most important common thread throughout these campaigns, where people reach out to others, to come together with their voices and suddenly have a platform to be brave and be heard.

Sometimes the simple acts that create such an unexpected splash are generated from bravery, or taking a stand, and sometimes it’s just empathy and imagination – taking a moment for people to put themselves in shoes other than their own.

“When we got Peter’s diagnosis two years ago, it rocked our world to pieces – we just felt hollow and completely devastated,” said Frates. “Today, just six or seven weeks after this all began, it almost feels like the complete opposite. We feel hopeful. I want more than anything for Peter to make it through this, but if he doesn’t, he will have a legacy. It’s such a miracle that so many people came on board.”

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