Recently, I attended and supported the Shooting Down Cancer event on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. I’m truly pleased to tell you that the day was a rousing, smashing success thanks to the help of UW-Madison students, matching donations, and Badger basketball coach Bo Ryan. The premise of the charity event is simple: UW-Madison students come to the Kohl Center, have fun throwing basketballs, and make Coach Ryan pay. Really. When basketballs make it through the hoop, Coach Ryan and his wife donate cash to the American Cancer Society. For each successful free throw, they donate $10, and for every half-court shot they donate a whopping $1,000.
This annual fundraising celebration has been around for four years. And each year more students participate and more funds are raised. This year’s student participants made 54 half-court shots to raise the Ryan’s donation to $60,147. Add in the mix ten matching donations—including one from the Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation—for a fine 2015 grand total…$694,117. Wow! In just four years, Shooting Down Cancer has now raised a total of $1,078,301.
It was inspiring to talk to so many young people who came out to support this cause. It is pretty cool to see these kids get affiliated with something so worthwhile and positive. I also had the opportunity to meet Rob Gooze. His wife Mary founded the One Woman Many Lakes campaign. In January 2012 Mary Gooze was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent lumpectomy surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Almost two years after her final radiation treatment she received word that her breast cancer had metastasized and spread to the bones in her hip. Despite her terminal cancer diagnosis, Mary has decided to swim across as many lakes as possible bringing awareness and funding to metastatic breast cancer—a poorly funded and all but forgotten branch of a deadly disease.
Talking with these young people and hearing stories like Mary’s put a different perspective on our lives and priorities. When people ask me why I give back, these are the stories that come to mind. For more information on Mary’s swims or to make a donation visit www.onewomanmanylakes.org.
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