Meet the new Team for Tomorrow 2010

Paralympian Taylor Lipsett plans on helping to build a home for others in Texas.
 
Figure skater Rachael Flatt, an Olympic hopeful who is still a senior in high school, wants to put a few smiles on the faces of kids at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo.
 
Olympic curling team member John Benton will deliver a message of inspiration to kids at Valley View Elementary School in Green Bay, Wis.
 
"Part of my message is going to be all about being a kid and giving back to your local communities, trying to give back whatever you can," Benton said. "Whatever you're going to be in life, whatever you want to succeed in, to not forget where you came from."
 
These are all personal pieces of the Team for Tomorrow, a U.S. Olympic Committee program that began the summer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with more than 30 Olympians participating in Habitat for Humanity projects and a donation of 1,000 tents to survivors of a large earthquake in China's Sichuan Province.
 
U.S. Olympians and Paralympians at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games will take the program to new heights, both before and after the Winter Games. The U.S. curling, luge and biathlon teams will visit schools. The figure skating and speedskating teams, as well as the Paralympic curling squad, will be visiting hospitals throughout the month to spread holiday cheer and the mantra of the Olympic Movement.
 
"The Olympic movement is something that has always been something near and dear to my heart," said Benton, a first-time Olympian who has been involved in curling for 34 years. "I've been attempting to get here for a long time."
 
The governing body for each U.S. sport has designated an "Athlete Ambassador" who would not only participate in the program, but also lead other athletes into it. Benton, for example, is hoping to get every USA Curling Olympian involved in a Habitat for Humanity house sometime after the Games. Lipsett plans to help with a house in Dallas.
 
"This is the first shot at this program for us winter athletes," said Lipsett, who competes in sled hockey and won a silver medal at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. "So I'm really excited to be a part of it."
 
In addition to Benton, Flatt and Lipsett, 2010 Team for Tomorrow Athlete Ambassadors (13, up from the original 10 in 2008) are Tony Benshoof (luge), Caitlin Cahow (ice hockey), Haley Johnson  (biathlon), Steven Nyman (alpine skiing), Augusto Perez (Paralympic curling), Noelle Pikus-Pace (skeleton), Katherine Reutter (speedskating)  Liz Stephen (cross-country skiing), Curt Tomasevicz (bobsled), and Stephani Victor (Paralympic alpine skiing).
 
The 2010 initiative has three central causes that support the "Olympic ideals," said USOC spokesperson Lindsay Hogan. They are: holiday visits and giving to hospitals and schools, a continuation of the Habitat for Humanity projects, and USOC humanitarian relief fund donations on behalf of U.S. athletes to youth programs in Afghanistan and Africa.

On December 2, the USOC announced a donation of more than 22,000 items of athletic equipment and apparel to the National Olympic Committees in Africa, plus more than 2,300 items donated to Afghanistan through Kabul's Bagram Air Force Base. The donation to Afghanistan was made in November; shipments to Africa were conducted earlier this month.

In addition to getting up and close with Olympic athletes, the schools and hospitals will benefit in the donation of more than 100 digital cameras this month, which will help stock school media labs, journalism courses, hospital rec rooms and more.

As the program has grown, so has the interest from athletes.  

"There are so many athletes really eager to help," Hogan said.
 
Flatt, already a spokesperson for the national Reading Is Fundamental program and a volunteer in a learn-to-skate program at her home ice rink, was one of those quick to step up.
 
"I was ecstatic," said Flatt, a two-time U.S. silver medalist, describing her feelings after being informed of the Team for Tomorrow program by Hogan and other organizers. "I was definitely looking forward to being part of it. It's a great program. It's pretty cool."
 
For Lipsett, it's more than that. He never thought he would have the opportunity to participate in competitive sports with other disabled athletes, never mind be in the position to help others in need by helping to build a home or tell kids about his own motivational story.
 
"Being a Paralympian and being someone who grew up as a child being disabled, I was always having to overcome obstacles every day," Lipsett said. "Things that able-bodied people take for granted, disabled people have to figure out ways to deal with that on a daily basis, whether it be getting into the shower, getting into the car, whatever. And to go see some of these kids and talk to them, let them see that I was able to overcome things like that and tell them, you know, if they put their mind to it, they can also overcome these obstacles."
 
It was only by chance that Lipsett even became a Paralympian. He talked with the mother-in-law of teammate Lonnie Hannah in a grocery store one day, not realizing until later it would be a life-changing conversation. Soon, Lipsett was helping Team USA earn a silver medal at the 2004 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships in Sweden.
 
"It totally changed my perspective on life," Lipsett said.
 
Getting Lipsett and the other athletes out into the public is challenging. The Team for Tomorrow program must dodge between training schedules and competitions, and professional careers and school. In fact, while several of the 2008 Olympians participated in the Olympic Build Day with Habitat for Humanity in Colorado Springs, approximately 25 other athletes joined in Habitat projects in other parts of the country after the Olympics were over, Hogan said.

"It's not something everyone can do all the time," said Flatt, who has competed as far away as China this season and heads to Spokane, Wash., next month to compete in the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "But it's a great opportunity for all the Olympians to have, especially after the Olympics and after such a high, the pinnacle of their careers, essentially."

 In the case of the curling team, such a day would likely happen in the summer.
 
"It seems like a really neat way for the Olympic athletes to intermingle with the other elite athletes, as well as the general curling population over the summer, in our offseason; a great time for us all to get together for a great cause, and really start a tradition of curling giving back." said Benton, a recovering alcoholic who, along with his wife, Carrie, volunteers at alcohol recovery centers and functions around Minnesota, his home state.
  
And it is after the Olympic Games, or even after an athlete's Olympic years, that the Team for Tomorrow programs may benefit the most. The community programs may be exactly what an athlete is looking for once the Games are over and life returns back to the routine, Hogan suggested. In the cases of Benton and Lipsett, they're already thinking that way.
 
"Usually, after two or three Olympics, you're pretty much done just because the next generation of athletes are coming through," Lipsett said. "But through a program like this, it allows the athletes to stay connected as their role as Olympian or Paralympian forever through giving back to their communities. ... So I'm really excited about that."
 
Added Benton: "I like the idea of being involved in the USOC well beyond my playing time. It's a unique opportunity and I'm just grateful to be a part of it."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Paul D. Bowker is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.

Tags: Habitat for Humanity, Team For Tomorrow, USOC, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games