Calipari Assists in Shoe Donations for WKY Tornado Victims (w/VIDEO)

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Less than 24 hours after his team blasted North Carolina in Las Vegas, Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari made a pair of stops in western Kentucky Sunday morning to visit with tornado survivors.

Calipari also had a major hand in bringing Samaritan’s Feet to the stops at Lake Barkley State Resort Park and Pennyrile Forest State Park. Calipari got involved with the non-profit organization on previous team trips to the Bahamas. On Sunday, Samaritan’s Feet brought 10,000 pairs of shoes to give to the survivors impacted by the December 10-11 tornados.

Calipari was joined by Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart and a pair of UK national champions — Jack Givens from the 1978 team and Darius Miller from the 2016 team.  Governor Andy Beshear and Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman joined them on a flight to Hopkinsville and then car visits to the state parks.

At Lake Barkley State Park, the group met with displaced survivors who are being housed at Lake Barkley and Kenlake State Park rent-free for up to four weeks. They talked with basketball coaches and players from Mayfield High School and Graves County High School. The EF-4 tornado leveled most of downtown Mayfield and put the schools and coaches into help mode.

John Calipari with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Emmanuel Ohonme with Samaritan’s Feet.

Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’ Nan accompanied the coaches and players. So did Mayfield Police Chief Nathan Kent, an Indiana native and Hoosier fan who still had his picture taken with Calipari — recognizing that blue and red must come together to successfully maximize recovery efforts.

Volunteers from Liberty Point Baptist Church in Cadiz helped hand out the free shoes to anyone that needed them.  They included several athletes from Caldwell County High School who had their homes destroyed by the same twister that destroyed Mayfield an hour earlier.

In talking with the survivors, Calipari said the stories moved him.

“I can see their pain. It’s not just buildings. This affected people,” he said, adding he wanted to bring the basketball team but felt they needed rest after getting back into Lexington at 2 am after Saturday’s win in Vegas.

Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan and UK Coach John Calipari

After the Lake Barkley stop, the group visited Pennyrile Forest State Park where most of the people housed there are from Dawson Springs, where the tornado destroyed over 60-percent of the town of 2,700 people.  President Joe Biden visited the community earlier in the week.

Calipari took time to talk to the survivors and have his picture made with the Dawson Springs basketball team, whose school is being used as a drop-off point for meals and supplies for the town. The tornado came just weeks after a car crash killed former Panther basketball player Logan McKnight and injured two others.

Calipari said he was proud of the telethon hosted by UK athletes earlier in the week that raised over $5 million for western Kentucky tornado victims.

Coach Calipari and Jack Givens discussed the trip to western Kentucky and the mission of helping the tornado victims in the video below.

 

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