“The fun thing about Tara, everyone talks about basketball and everything else, but she referred to her bubble. We’re all in a basketball bubble but the rest of the world keeps going,” Heidi said. “The great thing about her is that she definitely has the bigger picture in mind and understands that from traveling the world just how fortunate we are. And when you can help somebody, you do. It’s great. It’s awesome.”
At home over breakfast Thursday morning with sister Heidi, Tara VanDerveer formulated a plan to somehow help the suffering Ukrainian people who still mean so much to her years after she took the U.S. national team to play there, AP reports.
The Hall of Fame Stanford coach pledged $10 for every 3-pointer made in the women’s NCAA Tournament toward humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, and she challenged anyone else who could give to do so — even just a dime per 3 if possible.
Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner, whose team is playing its first-round NCAA game against Kansas at Stanford on Friday, immediately joined VanDerveer’s fundraising efforts. She was an assistant coach on that U.S. team.
“I want to put a challenge out to other coaches, to our fans, to everyone in here, my sister’s already accepted the challenge, I’d like to donate to the Ukraine humanitarian fund — and I’m not sure which fund it will be yet — $10 for every 3-point made in the NCAA women’s tournament,” VanDerveer said as defending champion and top-seeded Stanford prepared to take on Montana State in the first round.
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