Jayhawks Chill for a Good Cause
LAWRENCE, Kan. – A cold water challenge took over social media in the last week, especially with women’s basketball programs across the country. The Kansas women’s basketball staff is the latest group of coaches to accept the challenge and Chillin4Charity.
Chillin4Charity began late last week at the University of Arizona, where head coach Niya Butts initiated the challenge to several other coaches in the Pac-12. She had a cooler of ice-cold water dumped on her and she called out others to follow suit. If they accepted her challenge, Butts would donate $50 per coach to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and coaches who didn’t accept the challenge would donate $250. Butts’ assistant coaches joined in the fun too, challenging fellow assistant coaches and donating $25 per coach that accepts and those who don’t accept will donate $100.
The challenge went viral and moved from the Pac-12 to women’s basketball programs across the country. Chillin4Charity spread from women’s basketball to other sports and members of the media and even celebrities like Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Beyoncé.
Also joining the cold-water fun are women’s basketball players, who, instead of donating money, are giving their time in honor of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. For each player that accepts, a designated amount of community service will be completed.
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson, along with assistant coaches Katie O’Connor, Mahogany Green-Eddie and Shay Robinson, Director of Player Personnel/Analytics Drew Markowitz and sophomore guard Keyla Morgan accepted the challenge and passed the challenge on to others.
As of last Friday over 400 Division I coaches have participated in the Chillin4Charity challenge and nearly $12,000 raised in support of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
The Kay Yow Cancer Fund was officially founded on December 3, 2007, from the vision of the organization’s namesake Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women’s basketball coach. Yow was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and passed away on January 24, 2009, after facing her third bout with the disease. Before her death, she joined forces with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and The V Foundation for Cancer Research to form the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, a charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer in the fight against women’s cancers.
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