In March of his year, two hospitals and five rural, southwest Kansas communities agreed to lock arms for an unprecedented collaborative effort that would change the way they approached access to healthcare. What began as a simple fundraiser for breast cancer research grew into a movement that has gained the attention of regional and national media and impressed health leaders across the nation.

Ashland Health Center in Ashland, KS and Comanche County Hospital in Coldwater, Kansas collectively serve the communities of Wilmore, Englewood, Protection, Ashland and Coldwater. These five towns have banded together to form the WEPAC Alliance, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing resources and education to encourage local women in those towns to take active responsibility for their health.

The WEPAC Alliance has partnered with the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund ®, a charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer in the fight against women's cancers and founded by Coach Kay Yow, former women's basketball coach at North Carolina State University, to host its first annual WEPAC Hoops for Hope event..

10% of all money raised will go to the Kay Yow Fund. The remaining 90% will go to the WEPAC Alliance, an organization committed to paying for cancer-preventative care for any woman currently residing in Wilmore, Englewood, Protection, Ashland, and Coldwater.

This project was inspired dually by the life and death of Coach Kay Yow and what the Nike Foundation calls "The Girl Effect." When Nike goes into third-world countries and invests in the education, health and well being of adolescent girls there, their communities are transformed because they are taught to engage in their societies. They're valued for more than only birthing children. Though western Kansas is certainly no third-world country, we believe the same concept to be true. When we invest in the health, well being, and education of the women in our communities, our culture changes because women in the United States make 80% of the health care decisions for their families. When we teach them the importance of good health and preventative testing, they pass that knowledge on to their loved ones and everyone wins.

This unique project is a model for other communities across the country, showing that lack of size and/or resources should not hinder them in making a national impact while taking care of their local citizens. With the state of the economy, it is easy to find reasons to complain or excuse low performance. These are five rural Kansas communities (totaling approx. 2,500 people) that are finding solutions instead of excuses.

Join us as we do our part in changing the world!