Dousing buckets of ice water over the head and daring peers to accomplish the same task for charity is a recent social media trend that has gone viral and has caught the attention of Arizona women’s basketball head coach Niya Butts.
The idea for #Chillin4Charity is to dump a cooler of ice water over one’s head and call out peers to complete the challenge. If the peers fail to complete the challenge, they must donate money to a charity organization. If they do complete the challenge, then the challenger must donate money.
However, Butts has put her own twist to the challenge.
“I saw the videos online and saw how so many people were donating money for charity for pretty much betting with friends,” Butts said. “We as coaches decided to put together our own version of the challenge.”
The Butts version of the challenge stated that if fellow Pac-12 conference coaches completed the challenge with video proof within 48 hours, Butts would donate $50 to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund for each coach that she called out.
If the coaches failed to complete the challenge, each coach would have to donate $250 to the same foundation.
“This is just for a great cause,” Butts said. “It’s great to have fun with fellow coaching peers and give back to an organization like the Kay Yow Foundation.”
The trend didn’t stop at just coaches. Arizona women’s basketball players stepped up to the challenge and instead placed the bet for community service rather than donating money.
“Our girls sent out videos challenging other conference players and actually received some responses,” Butts said. “The players went out and gave back to the Boys and Girls Club as well as Habitat for Humanity.”
Coaches and players from around the Pac-12 wanted to expand the #Chillin4Charity by challenging peers from other conferences. As the trend started to gain traction with both coaches and players, other major conferences started to receive similar challenges.
“I was amazed how one simple challenge of dumping ice water that donates to charity can spread just from a video that is posted online,” Butts said. “To see this challenge reach as far as the SEC and the Big 12 conference is very unique and it makes it special because it’s all for charity.”
