Lighting the Way to The Olympics

lazzaric — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:27:09 GMT

The following post was written by Hugh Baker, a Canadian Bobsleigh hopeful for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. After losing a close friend to a blood cancer, Mr. Baker set his dreams in motion and began training for the Olympics. As he raises the necessary funds to compete, he is simultaneously donating 50% of the money received to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk. You can follow Mr. Baker’s journey to the Olympics on his web site: http://www.hughbaker.net.

Everyone has a dream. It could be anything from climbing Mt. Everest to being the best parent you possibly can. My name is Hugh Baker, and I am currently working towards making my dream come true. My dream is to represent my country on the biggest stage and inspire others along the way.

In 2005, a truly good person in my life lost his fight with a blood cancer. The thing that always stood out about my friend was his ability to always be positive. I rarely remember him without a smile. Last year,
I was part of a team who did the Light the Night walk in his honor.

In May of 2006, I took the first real steps to making my dream a reality and attended an identification camp held by Alberta Bobsleigh. By November, I was representing Canada at the Europa cup for the sports of Bobsleigh and Skeleton. This experience made me realize that this truly was what I wanted. I wanted to go to the Olympics.

In 2007, I needed to take the next step in order to make my dreams come true. I held a number of fundraisers to raise the money required to travel and compete in Europe. It was during this time, that I had a paradigm shift. I realized the reason I was doing this was not to only to make my dreams come true, but also to inspire anyone I came in contact with. I now had a greater duty than thinking of personal glory. And I had an idea of how I could live up to this higher calling.

Remembering my friend, I have decided to take my goal of inspiring others to the next level. I will continue to have fundraisers to help supplement my training costs, but I will also be donating half of all money raised to a worthy charity – The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk.

It is my belief that with all of our help, we can wipe these blood cancers off the face of the earth. And in that, we will be making a lot of dreams come true.

*The photos in this post originally appeared on http://www.hughbaker.net.

The Light The Night Walk Blog

Lighting the Way to The Olympics