Dishin & Swishin 6/26/14 Podcast: #Chillin4Charity goes viral and Hoopfeed joins in!
It is rare in this cynical time we live in to find something that galvanizes an entire community. If you follow women’s basketball, you know about #Chillin4Charity! Arizona head coach Niya Butts and her staff came up with the idea of dumping ice cold water over the heads of coaches, players, administrators and even media in a “cold water challenge.” It has united the women’s basketball community and led to a myriad of videos, pictures, call outs, and most importantly, donations.
On this week’s Dishin & Swishin podcast we pay tribute to the #Chillin4Charity challenge with two great guests.
First is Sue Donohoe, the Executive Director of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, the prime financial beneficiary of the endeavor. The former vice president of Division I Women’s Basketball at the NCAA, Donohoe has served as executive director since 2011. As an organization, the Kay Yow Cancer Fund has donated over $3.8 million to women’s cancer research, with no administrative costs taken from donations. What makes the #Chillin4Charity challenge so special to the Kay Yow Fund, according to Donohoe, is that it not only gives the Fund an unexpected revenue stream, it drives people to the website where they can learn more and educate themselves further.
As of today the #Chillin4Charity hashtag has been used in 13,200 tweets, reached 31.42 million people and been retweeted 80,400 times according to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Second on the podcast is coach Butts. The Wildcats’ coaching staff, notably assistant coach Calamity McEntire, saw cold water challenges on the internet, and thought it would be fun to call out the other coaches in the Pac-12 conference. From there, they decided it should be tied to a cause, and #Chillin4Charity was born. Coach Butts discusses the impact it has had on her, the staff and the student-athletes involved. Of course, the team’s struggles from this past season, bright hopes for next season and the Pac-12 conference are also discussed.
As I mentioned in the title, we at Hoopfeed are involved too! Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times called out both Hoopfeed founder Cheryl Coward and Dishin & Swishin host David Siegel, and both accepted their challenge. While not as technologically advanced as some of the other videos you have seen, I hope you enjoy Hoopfeed’s own #Chilln4Charity videos too!
Video #1 David Siegel
