Canadian Olympic legend bikes with troubled kids
Posted October 7, 2010 4:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Six-time Olympic medalist Clara Hughes was back in Vancouver today, but this time around she is not here to compete. Instead, she took 20 troubled teens for a ride along the seawall at Stanley Park to share good times and some memories.
The students are from Take A Hike Foundation for Youth At Risk program, to which Hughes made a $10,000 donation from her bronze medal win at the Vancouver Games.
She let the teens hold her bronze medal from the Vancouver Games and talked about her own troubled high school years. She said she dropped in and out of school and drank and smoked when she was just 16. “I was one of these kids, you know. I honestly was,” says Hughes. “And when I learned about Take A Hike, I was like, ‘Man, I wish I had Take A Hike program when I was 16 years old because it really could have helped me.'”
Eighteen-year-old Amanda Colwell has been to eight different high schools and is inspired by the way Hughes turned her own life around. “It hits you on a personal level, you know, like if Clara could do that, I could do it too. And she said she was 16, that’s around my age.”
Colwell said she is on track to graduate in June and credits the Take A Hike Foundation for helping her succeed.
The foundation helps kids turn their lives around through adventure based learning activities.
