Hughes to see kids she's helping
Moments after winning Olympic gold, Clara Hughes gave $10,000 to needy kids in disadvantaged countries. Now she’s getting a chance to see some of them.
Hughes, who lives in Glen Sutton, will be leaving today as part of a delegation to Ethiopia led by Right to Play, a Toronto-based organization that provides sports equipment and sports opportunities for children in poor and war-torn nations.
“It’s absolutely necessary to me to see these children I’ve been so inspired by,” she told The Record. “I feel I want to get some hands-on experience with the kids and look in their eyes.”
Hughes, 33, took the gold medal in the women’s 5,000m long-track speed skating event and a silver in women’s long-track team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin in February. During a televised interview following the 5,000m race, she announced her donation and challenged Canadians to give to Right to Play.
So far, nearly $400,000 has been raised, including a check for $15,235 from supporters in the Sutton area that she received recently at a Sutton town council meeting. An overall goal of $500,000 has been set, and Hughes says she’s ecstatic about the response thus far.
“The amount of funds that have been raised has been amazing,” she said.
Right to Play is taking along six other athletes on the Ethiopia trip, including another Canadian, recently retired cross-country skier Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alta., who won Olympic gold and silver medals during her career.
Hughes is expecting a busy five-day visit in and around Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
“There’s going to be an international athlete forum with two Canadian athletes, two Chinese athletes, one American, one Norwegian and a Dutch athlete,” she explained. “We’ll be discussing things we’ve done with Right to Play and things we could do better in terms of being athlete ambassadors. Then we’ll be working with the coaches in some of the areas where they’re working in Addis Ababa. And we’ll be training and then we’ll be able to work with the kids in the field a couple of days.
“That’s what I’m most excited about, going and meeting the kids and just hearing the stories of the coaches and the volunteers who are living there and working there on a day to day basis with these children, getting to know them and their stories. I just can’t wait to meet these people.”
Right to Play aims to give kids who wouldn’t otherwise have sporting opportunities the chance to play in an effort to help build their physical and emotional well-being as well as to help build safer and better communities.
The organization has programs set up in 23 countries and reaches roughly 500,000 children and youth every week.
Hughes, who also owns a long-track speed skating gold medal from the 2002 Winter Olympics and two cycling bronze medals from the 1996 Summer Olympics, is one of Canada’s most accomplished sports performers.
She is part of Right to Play’s roster of athlete ambassadors that includes Scott, American speed skating gold medal winner Joey Cheek and hockey star Wayne Gretzky. They serve as spokespeople and as role models.
Martin Barnard, the organization’s manager of athlete relations, says the Ethiopia trip has two main purposes.
“The first is to increase the awareness of the athletes. It makes a big difference once they’ve visited one of our programs. So when they talk to the media they have a lot of concrete examples of what they saw,” he said. “The second thing is to help the kids on the ground by bringing Olympic athletes there to inspire them. It makes the kids feel that they matter. These athletes have come a long way to see them.”
Hughes was inspired to donate the $10,000 of her own money partly as a result of Cheek’s donation of his $25,000 bonus money from the U.S. Olympic Committee earlier in the Olympics (Canada doesn’t give its athletes bonuses for winning medals) and partly as a result of seeing a documentary about Right to Play the morning of her 5,000m race.
She says the joyful and sparkling eyes of the kids she saw on television made her feel she had to do something to help them.
“I think for me one of the important things with Right to Play is that they’re allowing kids this opportunity to just be children and to have the joy and fun of play.”
While Hughes is excited about the trip, she’s not sure what the experience will be like.
“For me it’s important to go into something like this without too many expectations, because I’ve never been to Africa,” she said. “I think it’s really important to go into it and just allow the experience to unfold. I think this is something that could potentially inspire me to do even more and I hope it does.”
