UK friends and foes unite to raise more than $3 million and counting for tornado relief.
The “Kentucky United Tornado Disaster Relief Telethon” raised $3,031,241 in donations, it was announced as the four-hour event concluded Tuesday night.
The money will be used to help victims of the tornadoes that devastated Mayfield, Ky., and other communities in western Kentucky.
The telethon was the latest — and John Calipari said the greatest — relief effort led by the UK basketball coach. Earlier telethons dealt with an earthquake in Haiti and flooding in Houston caused by a hurricane.
“This will blow them out of the water,” said Calipari, who added that donations will be matched, which suggested a grand total exceeding $6 million.
Calipari announced on Twitter on Wednesday morning that the telethon total had grown to $3.3 million.
“So just overnight we got another $300,000,” the UK coach’s tweet said. “It’s amazing how much good can happen when people come together for the right reasons.”
Among those donating between $10,000 and $50,000 were such former UK players as Jamal Murray, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns, Bam Adebayo, Willie Cauley-Stein, Tyrese Maxey and Enes Freedom. Dick Vitale of ESPN donated $10,000.
Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann, who grew up in Lexington and then Nicholasville, donated $50,000.
“We’re teammates up until Saturday,” he quipped in reference to his Buckeyes playing Kentucky in Las Vegas that day.
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz, whose team plays Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day, made a donation. He said the pictures of the damage were “heart-wrenching.”
Ferentz saluted the telethon as “one thing that puts sports aside.”
Other donations announced included $100,000 from Ray Ball of Ball Homes, $50,000 from Kroger, and $10,000 from WLEX-TV, which aired the telethon.
Appreciation was voiced for donations small as well as large. An eighth-grader donated 10 weeks of his weekly allowance of $10, it was announced. In addition to the money, donations included 300,000 articles of clothing and 14,000 pairs of shoes. UK athletes will wear a commemorative patch on uniforms the rest of the school year.
UK baseball coach Nick Mingione recalled needing assistance to recover from a natural disaster. While living in Florida, a hurricane caused the roof on the apartment building where he was living to collapse, he said. He had time to evacuate, he said, and then returned to ankle deep water in the apartment.
“I have a soft spot for these people,” he said of western Kentuckians impacted by the tornadoes.
Mingione offered advice to people thinking about donating. “Just do it,” he said, “because there are people out there in serious need.”
UK football’s associate coach, Vince Marrow, noted that Wednesday would be “signing day,” when announcements are made about new recruits signing.
“This, to me, takes precedence over that,” Marrow said of the telethon.
UK volleyball coach Craig Skinner said he and his wife had made a donation. He laughed when WLEX anchor Bill Meck noted that people who called the telethon might be able to talk to a national championship coach.
“If that’s what motivates people to help people in need, by all means, let’s use everything we can . . . ,” Skinner said. “Any contribution means something.”
During an appearance early in the telethon, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart noted that Kentucky athletes were helping take calls.
“The beauty of it is these athletes aren’t worried about NIL (name, image and likeness) today,” Barnhart said.
An NIL opportunity for UK basketball players announced last week has been altered in the aftermath of the tornadoes. The opportunity, which involves digital products (or NFTs — non fungible tokens) was scheduled to launch Saturday.
“In light of the tragedy in western Kentucky, Mercury is donating all proceeds from its UK basketball collectibles/nft effort . . . ,” spokesman Richard Shea wrote in an email. “They’d long planned on launching around this Saturday’s game so, instead of canceling, they’ve decided to donate all the revenue to the relief effort.”
The deal is with 11 Kentucky players: Dontaie Allen, Sahvir Wheeler, Kellan Grady, Jacob Toppin, Keion Brooks, Lance Ware, Bryce Hopkins, CJ Fredrick, Daimion Collins, Davion Mintz and TyTy Washington, plus Calipari.
The first digital items available for purchase on the platform are scheduled to be posted on Saturday.
Purchases on ukbluechips.io can be made with standard methods of payments in addition to crypto currency, the news release said.
The platform to be used will be called UK Blue Chips. Fans can buy digital items at ukbluechips.io.
In another fundraising effort, UK football players Will Levis, Wan’Dale Robinson, Chris Rodriguez and Josh Paschal will be signing autographs at KSBar and Grille in Lexington on Saturday at 1 p.m. All proceeds will go a western Kentucky tornado relief fund organized by Kentucky Sports Radio and the Kentucky Chamber Foundation. As of Tuesday evening, the fund had raised nearly $300,000.
Donations are still being accepted to the Kentucky United Tornado Disaster Relief Telethon.
Donations can be made by visiting https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/wlextv-pub.html/ or by sending a check to the American Red Cross:
Attn: Kentucky Tornadoes
1450 Newtown Pike
Lexington, KY 40511
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 9:53 PM.
