Dangerous drinking game ‘neknominate’ inspires charitable pay-it-forward movements

Amid growing concerns about "neknominate," an online peer-pressure drinking game in which people challenge their friends to down alcoholic beverages in extreme — and often dangerous — ways, a few compassionate Canadians are finding a way to give the game a charitable twist.

And it all started in South Africa.

In a neknomination video, instead of participating in extreme drinking, a South African man gave a homeless person food and challenged others to also "pay it forward."

Halifax hip-hop artist Adrian Morris saw the video and was inspired to do something similar. In his video, he showed off items he planned to donate to a food bank, then chugged a beer. He nominated producer Corey LeRue to follow suit.

LeRue, who doesn't drink, revealed his food-bank donations, then chugged a ginger ale on camera before nominating someone else.

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"I think that it's definitely started something that’s going to give a little bit of a different approach to it and hopefully, maybe, inspire some people to continue with this — maybe change some opinions on youth and people in the hip-hop community," LeRue told CBC News.

"Every year more people in Nova Scotia are in need of the food banks and it seems like every year less donations are coming in … It's not even a matter of big dollars, every little bit counts and I think we really want to inspire the youth of today to give to those who are less fortunate."

Also in Halifax, Mount Saint Vincent University student Alyssa Roy, 19, started what she calls "raknominations," using the trendy game to nominate others to perform random acts of kindness.

"I thought it would be cool to celebrate kindness instead of celebrating beer," Roy told Global News. "I think everyone has kindness in them and that should be celebrated."

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Roy's kindness movement has spread through the MSVU campus.

University of Ottawa medical student Josh Stern and his friend Russell Citron also saw the South African video and were inspired to give neknominate a new charitable approach.

"I call it Feed the Deed," Stern told the Toronto Sun of their new interpretation of the game. "Instead of calling out your friends to drink insane amounts and one-up each other, why not try doing a good deed and pay it forward?"

Citron runs a nonprofit called Kindness Counts, "a creative initiative with a mission of inspiring the world to practice and spread kindness," and believes Feed the Deed has a lot of potential to make kindness go viral.

"Ten steps down the road, and nominating five people every time, you’ve nominated 1,000 different acts of kindness," Citron said.

Watch #FeedTheDeed videos, which reveal the movement has already spread to New York and Australia, on the Kindness Counts Facebook page.