BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
> GardingAgainstCancer.org
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin men's basketball coach Greg Gard likes to point out the fact that he was born, raised, educated and is now professionally employed in the state.
It illustrates how deep his roots go.
It also gives meaning to a real-life project near and dear to his heart.
On the eve of his first full season as coach of the ninth-ranked Badgers, Gard and his wife Michelle are undertaking a new fundraising initiative called "Garding Against Cancer."
It's a collaboration between the Carbone Cancer Center, UW Health and the UW Foundation built on the premise that all proceeds raised will stay in the state of Wisconsin.
"To be able to stand up in front of groups and say every penny raised is going to stay at work right here at home, that has resonated beautifully with everyone that I've talked to," Gard said.
The undertaking is intensely personal for Gard, whose father, Glen, died of brain cancer in October of 2015.
"If there's a purpose, a silver lining in all of this, it's that this is what he would have wanted," Gard said. "He would have wanted us to use this experience to be able to help other people. He would want to do it as much as possible here at home."
Gard grew up in tiny Cobb, attended Iowa-Grant High School, graduated from UW-Platteville and was an assistant with the Badgers from 2001 to 2015.
When his mentor, Bo Ryan, resigned as head coach during the 2015-16 season, Gard assumed the reins on an interim basis before earning a five-year contract to run the program.
The death of Glen Gard and the family's basketball legacy in southwest Wisconsin – Jeff Gard is the men's coach at NCAA Division III UW-Platteville – prompted Greg and Michelle to research a fundraising model that would keep donations in-state and allow for an advisory committee that would decide how to allocate funds where needed.
"We want this to be border-to-border, across the state," Greg Gard said. "Our vision here is to take it and make it a state-wide impact.
"The analogy I use is that, hey, if you're going to pay your tax dollars to fix roads in your own state, why would you want your tax dollars to go fix roads in another part of the country? Have them work here at home.
"We feel with the people and resources behind it that this can have a tangible, visible impact in the state."
The partnership allows the Gards to team with Carbone, the state's only facility designated by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center.
The new program is independent of the Coaches vs. Cancer initiative, championed by Ryan and the American Cancer Society.
"The sky's the limit in terms of what we can do. This will have an impact on patients and research for all forms of cancer," Greg Gard said.
Sitting in his Kohl Center office, minutes after returning from a recruiting trip, Gard said giving back is the driving force behind "Garding Against Cancer." He said his unique small-town upbringing and high-profile status as coach of the Badgers give him a unique voice.
"The state has done so much for us, the places and the people," he said. "Now can we use our journey, our experience, our platform to be able to generate a huge impact across the state."
Gard said the voice of his late father – Glen was a farmer, agriculture loan officer, youth coach and president of the Iowa-Grant athletics booster club – was persistent in this process.
"He was really big into buying local," Greg Gard said. "Think globally and help locally.
"He supported small businesses. He wanted to help people."
When Glen passed – he fought Glioblastoma Multiforme, a form of brain cancer, for six months until he died Oct. 30, 2015 at the age of 72 – it triggered conversations involving Greg and Michelle Gard about how to embrace the lessons they learned.
One example: "Cancer doctors and researchers will tell you this, when patients can get treatment and stay in a comfort zone as much as possible – not have to travel very far and sleep in their own beds and be in their home environment – the treatment is way more effective," Greg Gard said.
All sorts of fundraising ideas are being thrown about, most of which involve basketball and public speaking. On the anniversary of their father's death, an exhibition game pitting the Badgers vs. UW-Platteville – Gard vs. Gard – was held to raise awareness of brain cancer. The plan is to make UW's exhibition game an annual cancer awareness event.
"We're not the first people to go through it and unfortunately we're probably not going to be the last," Greg said. "So, in the meantime, until we can continue to gain ground and catch this thing, how can we use our platform, our experience, our voice and resources, our time and energy, to be able to help other people.
"We want to help here at home the most."
