U.S. Paralympic Athlete Aims to Inspire with his Talk of Overcoming the Odds
What: What life lessons can youngsters learn from the sport of curling? Fifty 8th and 9th grade students who are spending this summer at the Steppingstone Academy will soon find out. U.S. Paralympic curling champ Augusto “Goose” Perez, who is training for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, hopes to motivate the scholars with his message of perseverance, the ability to focus, and the importance of education.
When: Wednesday, July 15 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Albert C. Jacobs Life Sciences Center on the campus of Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford. For a map of the campus, visit: www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/VisitingTrinity/CampusMap.htm
Background: When Perez speaks about overcoming challenges to reach one’s goals, he speaks from experience. He’s fought cancer three times. He moved to the United States from Spain during his senior year in high school in 1991. And he mastered the sport of curling in seven weeks.
A resident of East Syracuse, N.Y., Perez is a member of the 2010 U.S. Paralympic Wheelchair Curling Team and was named the U.S. Curling Male Athlete of the Year in 2008. He competed at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy. Off the ice, the Madrid native is a Spanish tutor for middle and high school students. Perez received his B.A. from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., the founding sponsor of the U.S. Paralympics, arranged for Perez to speak to the scholars. The Steppingstone Academy is run by the Hartford Youth Scholars Foundation (HYSF), a nonprofit organization that helps city students attend college by providing academic preparation and placing students in elite independent schools throughout Connecticut.
A supporter of the HYSF, The Hartford contributed $25,000 to the organization last year and is providing in-kind services this year. Trinity College is also a supporter of the HYSF and the school’s president, James F. Jones, Jr., is a board member.
Perez will visit with the Steppingstone Academy students the day before playing in The Hartford’s annual golf outing to benefit U.S. Paralympics. He and three other Paralympic athletes will hit the greens at Tunxis Plantation Golf Course in Farmington along with The Hartford’s employees on Thursday, July 16. Last year’s golf outing raised more than $41,000 for U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Its mission is to recruit and train elite athletes with physical disabilities.
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