CJ Fredrick came up with the idea for Kentucky's flood relief fundraiser

Tonight, the Kentucky Basketball team is hosting an open practice and telethon at Rupp Arena with Joe and Kelly Craft and the American Red Cross to raise money for the victims of the Eastern Kentucky floods. While this is the fifth disaster relief telethon the program has held in the John Calipari era, the open practice is a new element that will help bring in eyes and hopefully, funds. When the event was announced on Sunday, Calipari made it clear that it was a player-driven initiative. Turns out it was the brainchild of one player in particular: CJ Fredrick.

“This one hits a little different for me,” the redshirt junior from the Northern Kentucky area said. “Just being from the state, seeing the devastating things that happen, it really came to me and the whole team, what can we do to help? We have a really special team. For the whole team to come together and basically go off Cal’s leadership as servant leaders and come together and do this, but like you said, being from the state, this means a lot to me and we’re just as a team extremely excited for tomorrow, to help out in any way we can for Eastern Kentucky.”

“CJ actually came to us about it and then we all went to Coach and we talked about what we can do to best benefit Eastern Kentucky and what we can do to help them,” Jacob Toppin said. “And we came up with the idea of doing what we’re doing tomorrow, raising money.”

Calipari said that in the past, the team would follow his lead when it came to situations like this. When the players approached them with their idea over the weekend, he knew he immediately had to get the ball rolling.

“They always would want to know, ‘What are you doing, Coach?’ Because they know I would do something. ‘What are you going to have us do?’ This was totally different. This kind of got me. Like, what? The reason it’s flipped so fast is they came to me, so their part of it was practice, Rupp Arena, how do we do this?”

This photo is a gut punch. 98-yr-old Mae Amburgey of Whitesburg / Letcher Co. waiting to be rescued Thursday July 28th after floodwater entered her home.
Amburgey’s granddaughter, Missy Crovetti, reports she was rescued and is safe. pic.twitter.com/KxDrvWifGV

— Shawn Reynolds (@ShawnReynolds_) July 29, 2022

Fredrick: “I just said, ‘We’ve got to do something here.'”

Fredrick was in his car scrolling through social media when he saw a picture of an elderly woman sitting alone in her flooded house. That photo, which has now gone viral, is of 98-year-old Mae Amburgey from Letcher County. She, her son, and grandson were able to escape the home and are safe, but the haunting image is a reminder that many are not.

“She was just so sad, distraught and that’s the picture I saw that broke me down,” Fredrick said. “That’s when I just said, ‘We’ve got to do something here.'”

What an astounding, sad picture pic.twitter.com/a1DPRKUFLF

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) July 29, 2022

For Jacob Toppin, it was the photo of a girl and her dog atop their house in the floodwaters.

“I remember seeing one picture of this lady with her dog on top of a roof and I was just looking at that and I was devastated for her and her family. It could happen to anybody. It could happen to us. It’s just by the grace of God that it’s not happening to us and we have to be grateful for that. We have to keep these people in our prayers and pray for them and stick with them and make sure we do anything we can to help them through this.”

Fredrick, who grew up surrounded by Kentucky fans, knew there was a unique way the players could harness the power of the Big Blue Nation.

“The brand of Kentucky is a huge brand and I knew it could make an immediate impact. You think of what Cal does with his leadership. This is what he teaches us. It kind of came to my head and I thought it would be a great way to get the fans involved, bringing them out to Rupp, watching us practice, and raising money and it would be a great thing for everybody to get together right now.”

The event is tonight at Rupp Arena from 5-8 p.m. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch live on LEX18 or LEX18.com. You can donate online, by check, or by phone (859.787.0909). The players will take calls during the telethon from 5-6 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., the open practice will begin. Calipari hopes that those displaced by the floods will be able to tune in.

“They’re in shelters. What I would hope is they turn on a TV and see Rupp Arena and they’re like, ‘Wow. These people care.’ And this state is that way.”