UNIT3D: CougCenter and Cougfan raise more than $13,000 for Hilinski’s Hope

You all are truly unbelievable.

After six weeks and more than 700 shirts, hoodies, and tank tops bought by all of you — plus more than $2,000 in cash donations* — CougCenter and Cougfan.com are proud to announce that our UNIT3D campaign is resulting in a donation of $13,386.65 to Hilinski’s Hope.

Guess what? You can STILL buy a shirt!

Bonfire (the website selling and printing the shirts) is going to do one more printing run. If you’d still like to buy a shirt/hoodie/tank top, you can buy one (or five) here. Remember, roughly $15 of every shirt sale goes directly to Hilinski’s Hope.

On a personal note, it’s hard for me to express how much it means to me that you partnered with us in this. I’ve had the honor of getting to know Mark and Kym Hilinski personally, and I can tell you that their passion for ending the stigma surrounding suicide and empowering people to help others is as authentic as it appears on all the interviews you see. They are every bit as incredible as they seem, and to be able to present them with such a sizable a check to support their endeavor means so much.

And it was only possible because of you. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

While we’re thanking people, I want to thank one-time CougCenter writer Britton Ransford for the cool design on the t-shirts. He definitely didn’t do it so that I would plug his stuff, but I’m going to do it anyway. If you’d like to explore the idea of Britton doing some digital work for you (web design, graphic design, etc.), you can contact him at thebkdigital@gmail.com. And if you’re into snazzy headwear, Britton also has his own line at ButteBrand.com.

I also want to thank Greg Witter over at Cougfan — he’s an amazing guy, and when I approached him with this idea, he was all over it. We spent hours over the phone collaborating on ideas, and neither of us could have done this alone. We really are better when we’re UNIT3D.

When combined with our previous two campaigns for Make-A-Wish, CougCenter readers have now been a part of donating roughly $36,000 to charitable causes over the years. I couldn’t be more proud.

If you’re still looking for ways to contribute to Hilinski’s Hope, you actually can still buy a shirt/hoodie/tank top! Bonfire has already gone through a pair of printing runs on them, and they’re getting ready to do a third run. There’s a pretty good chance this is the last one, though, so if you want one and haven’t followed through yet, go get yours now.

Of course, you also can make a cash donation at any time through the foundation’s website, HilinskisHope.org. Additionally, Drew Bledsoe’s Be Bottle company is selling a new special edition Hilinski’s Hope water bottle. Be Bottle raised $28,000 for the foundation through sales the first time around, last May.

“I’m incredibly honored to be part of this collaboration and I want to thank everyone who supported the effort! I’m also proud that we’re going to keep it going and continue raising funds to help Hilinski’s Hope reach other student athletes in need,” Bledsoe said via news release. “Here’s my challenge to my fellow Cougs: join us, help us to keep this going, and let’s make Tyler’s bottles the official bottles of Coug Nation!”

* Note: If you donated directly to Hilinski’s Hope for a “CougCenter perk,” you should have received a followup email from me last night. If you did not, please contact me at cougcenter@gmail.com.