Brian Butch hosts the Rally for the Valley youth basketball camp to raise money for tornado relief Aug. 6, 2026, at the Community First Champion Center in Grand Chute. PC: Fox 11 Online
GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A youth basketball camp is raising money to support families impacted by the EF-3 tornado that hit the Fox Valley last week.
Sweat Equity Basketball, led by former Appleton West High School, University of Wisconsin and professional basketball player Brian Butch, held a free basketball camp on Thursday for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“We put together this camp with a vision of, first, let’s give two hours of kids to be kids, that’s the first thing. Second, let’s see if we can raise money and give it to the United Way Community Relief Fund,” Butch said.
While it didn’t cost anything to attend, Butch says voluntary donations reached $11,000. That money is going to the United Way to support families affected by the tornado.
About 250 kids attended the two-hour camp, according to Butch. He got the idea after his kids preschool was destroyed by the tornado.
“So we’ve had to try to explain, like, your school isn’t here anymore,” he said. “And trying to explain that to a 7, 6, and 3 year old, was difficult. And I know if my kids saw that, a lot of other kids saw that. This is an opportunity that we’ve decided to kind of do, to put together, to show them hey, through the bad we can create good.”
Butch was joined by fellow former University of Wisconsin players, including Matt Ferris. His home on Doty Island was also hit by the tornado.
“To see our neighborhood, our community affected like that, makes it a little bit closer to home and really was a little bit more motivation for me to be here today,” he explained.
He said the main goal of their work is to make sure the kids have a place to be themselves away from the uncertainty storm damage can bring.
“A lot of these kids here too have potentially lost their homes, are living in a hotel or a random place. So to give them a place of normalcy, the consistency of a basketball camp is special,” Ferris said.
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