Vitale 'chills' for charity

LAKEWOOD RANCH — As Dick Vitale sat outside the Lakewood Ranch First Watch restaurant July 10, his primary purpose wasn’t to eat pancakes or sign autographs.

Instead, the ESPN Hall-of-Fame basketball commentator and Lakewood Ranch resident braced himself for a morning chill, as members of his family, the Cardinal Mooney girls basketball team and others drenched him with 30 buckets of icy water.

Vitale took off his shoes, but sported khaki shorts and a polo shirt for the occasion.

“My neck feels frostbitten,” Vitale said as he wiped water from his face after the last bucket had been poured. “It’s colder than I thought.”

The event was held as part of the #Chillin4Charity Cold Water Challenge, an initiative to support the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Fellow broadcaster Leah Secondo challenged Vitale to participate, vowing to donating $50 to the fund on Vitale’s behalf if agreed to have one bucket of ice water dumped on him. If he didn’t, he would have had to donate $250 to the cause.

She offered the challenge to other broadcasters from the event, as well.

Vitale used the opportunity to further impact cancer research, challenging friends to pay $100 per bucket of water to raise money for The V Foundation for Cancer Research.

“I wanted to go one step above the challenge,” said Vitale, whose mission is to raise money for pediatric cancer research. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].