Posted on 02/22/2002 2:25:44 PM PST by UnsinkableMollyBrown
The Olympic ideal played out in real life here over the past week as a small group of Utahns embraced the struggling women's hockey team from Kazakhstan.
When the team showed up in grubby gear for a practice at The Peaks Ice Arena on Feb. 8, Orem's Shannon Arnoldsen and other volunteers couldn't help but notice.
"Sweden gets off the bus with matching berets and Versace outfits," said Matthew Hemmert, a volunteer who supervises team transportation. "Then Kazakhstan gets off in hospital scrubs or sweat pants with holes in them."
The bus driver told Arnoldsen a sobering tale. He had taken the team shopping for souvenirs at a local mall, but the players had returned to the bus after 10 minutes.
"Too expensive," the players told the driver.
He next took them to Wal-Mart. A few players made purchases, but most said the same thing: "Still too expensive."
Finally, the bus arrived at a dollar store.
"Not exactly where you want Olympians to pick up Olympic souvenirs," Hemmert said.
The story gnawed at Arnoldsen, who took three years of Russian at BYU and felt a kinship with the women from this impoverished former Soviet Republic. She went shopping that night in search of souvenirs for the team. She thought about Olympic pins, but wanted the gift to be from Provo. It didn't go well at first.
"We just couldn't afford anything because there's 25 players and coaches," she said.
At the Olympic Spirit store, fittingly, she backed into one of her neighbors in northeast Orem, and told him the story.
Arnoldsen turned the project over to another neighbor, Susan Randall, and returned to work at The Peaks. Before she knew it, Roger Utley and Gordon Brown at the bookstore agreed not to a discount, but to a donation of 25 hooded BYU sweatshirts worth $750. Friends raised $400. The man with the $100 bill arranged for a gift of 25 button-down dress shirts from the Utah Homebuilders Association.
There was more: Randall's daughter created Valentine's Day cards for each team member. A Provo official provided the city's Olympic pins and colorful magazines with beautiful pictures of the area. Children wrote letters of friendship.
Arnoldsen found the players' names on the Internet and personalized the Valentine's cards, then placed $20 in each.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan had lost 7-0 to Canada on Monday. While they lost another 7-0 game Wednesday at The Peaks, Arnoldsen and Hemmert laid out the gifts on each seat of the team bus. Arnoldsen happened upon a young man who had served a two-year LDS church mission in Russia and he agreed to translate her letter to the team:
"We were impressed and inspired by the obstacles you overcame to come to the Olympics," Arnoldsen wrote. "We wanted you to have something to remember your time here."
It was signed, "From your American friends."
The first player onto the bus was goalie Natalya Trunova. Her face was blotchy from crying over the team's second lopsided loss. She found Arnoldsen's letter and read it, then began to sob and shake. She went back into the building to bring out her teammates, who were overwhelmed.
"We were very grateful to get the gifts," Trunova said through a translator Friday after making 48 saves in a 4-1 loss to Russia. "We've been grateful for the cheering of the crowds. It made our day to get those gifts, to know there were people happy to see us and have us here."
The team's coach, Alexandr Maltsev, confirmed that the women's program, making its first Olympic appearance, has a limited budget and no corporate sponsors. Trunova, who managed to bring just $30 to the Olympics, mentioned that the team's Olympic uniforms had barely arrived in time.
Arnoldsen's concern for 25 people from the other side of the world struck a chord of international goodwill, said Natalya Yakovchuk, who scored Kazakhstan's only Olympic goal on Friday.
"I'm glad to have this opportunity to thank the citizens of America for the exceedingly warm reception, excellent hospitality, the way they treat our team, which is especially wonderful because we're not known as the best team," Yakovchuk said. "Thank you on behalf of our entire team."
Said Maltsev, "I'm honored the team touched the heart of the people here."
Randall, like Arnoldsen, was uncomfortable with the idea that a reporter knew about the good deed.
"We wanted to extend our friendship because we thought they were young and poor and beat up and needed friends," Randall said. "We have a lot here, so it's kind of nice to share. And we're grateful BYU came through."
Hemmert is grateful to have worked as a volunteer with Arnoldsen.
"This is what the Olympics are all about," he said. "Shannon is just incredible. She deserves a gold medal."
Thanks for this beautiful story. At the risk of sounding sappy, let me dare to say that I believe that charity and goodness knows no borders, and I wish that all of us would remember that once in a while.
I would try teach myself the value of sobriety....Just kidding. Heartwarming artice.
Cheers--to the kindness of the Salt Lake City and Utah hosts. Sniff...
As a former pickup game goalie, I can say this an heroic effort! Thanks for the great story.
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