John Calipari shares thoughts on Eastern Kentucky service trip

Yesterday, John Calipari, women’s basketball coach Kyra Elzy, men’s golf coach Brian Craig, women’s golf coach Golda Borst, women’s tennis coach Carlos Drada, STUNT coach Blair Bergmann, and Goose Givens traveled to Eastern Kentucky on behalf of Samaritan’s Feet. The group went to Jenny Wiley and Buckhorn Lake State Parks to distribute over 10,000 pairs of shoes to victims of last month’s floods. Calipari shared a few moments from his visit yesterday on social media, but after a morning of reflection at church, went a little more in-depth on the region, which faces a massive rebuild.

Left mass this morning thinking about our trip to eastern Kentucky yesterday and two things came to mind: pic.twitter.com/tCnv6RXT06

— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 24, 2022

Left mass this morning thinking about our trip to eastern Kentucky yesterday and two things came to mind:

1. People during these kind of times want to tell their story, want to be heard, want to show pictures of what they went through. We must have to listen!!

2. More important than what we did, giving away shoes that were needed, was the fact that we cared enough to be there in their presence because they don’t want to be forgotten on this long road they’re on. We must not forget about anyone.

We coaches were blessed by everyone we met yesterday and they will all continue to be in my daily prayers.

John Calipari

Kyra Elzy shared a video on her Instagram page of the group washing children’s feet and giving them new shoes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kyra Elzy (@ukcoachlz)

Kentucky fan shows off memorabilia

ICYMI, yesterday Calipari shared a picture of the group and Edgar and Coleen Sandlin, two UK fans who lost everything in the floods — except their UK memorabilia, which they were able to salvage. Edgar was able to show Goose Givens some of his items from Goose’s playing days, a very cool moment.

Here’s Edgar showing Goose some of the memorabilia he has from his playing days! pic.twitter.com/IO6V8vjryD

— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 23, 2022

As Calipari said, the people of Eastern Kentucky will need our help for a while. If you’d like to help the region rebuild, KSR and the Kentucky Chamber Foundation’s Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund is still open. With the money raised in this fund, our two groups will be working with local communities, local chambers, as well as our state and local elected officials to ensure the needs of these areas are met in the wake of tragedy.