World T.E.A.M. Sports - Testimonials

World T.E.A.M. Sports
Bayside Office Center
150 Mount Vernon St, Suite 2
Dorchester, MA 02125
Attention: Christopher G. Carrigg

May 03, 2007

Dear Chris and World T.E.A.M. Sports Staff,

I want to thank all of you for what you have done for our wounded service members and veterans. I also want to tell you all how much I appreciate what you did in coordinating the 2007 “Face of America” ride, as Chris and I had a GREAT time!

The camaraderie of being part of a team effort is more important to our wounded soldiers than most can understand. Losing the ability to serve with their comrades is many times very difficult and has a tendency to make life rather lonely. Yet, when these wounded soldiers are involved in sports and part of a team effort they have a chance to feel a part of something that fills the void and ultimately helps in their recovery. This is the case for my son and events like the Face of America Ride give him the motivation, courage, and the encouragement to continue to pursue recovery from his injury, and for that I am grateful.

You are doing so much more than just helping our soldiers overcome physical injuries, you’re helping them regain self-pride, dignity, and confidence by offering emotional support and encouragement for their new life’s journey. By extending yourselves with compassion and dedication it’s obvious it’s much more than a job to each of you, and I hope you wake up every morning feeling the rewards in your heart.

I’m also aware that part of what you do is find sponsorship for World T.E.A.M. Sports and the “Face of America” Ride, so I would like to send letters to those who supported this past week-ends event. Would you please provide me with names, and emails or addresses for those supporters, so I may personally thank them for their contributions also.

We look forward to the next time we see you and hope it will be soon, please keep in touch!

Sincerely,
Cheryl RM Lynch
Chris’ Mom
Christopher R Lynch US Army Retired 82nd Airborne

Wounded Troops, Supporters Ride Bicycles 110 Miles

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 – Nathan Potts was one of about 50 seriously wounded servicemembers who went for a two-day, 110-mile bike ride this weekend, just to show they could.

“The ride proves that I can still do something. I’m not going to waste away to nothing,” Potts, 33, said. “It gets you out here with other people that have similar problems. It gives you the idea: ‘Well shoot, if they can do it, I can do it as well.’”

About 200 supporters also made the 2007 Face of America Bike Ride from Gettysburg, Pa., to the National Naval Medical Center, at Bethesda, Md. World T.E.A.M. Sports, a nonprofit organization, sponsored the two-day event. The acronym stands for The Exceptional Athlete Matters.

Marine Gen. Bob Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and his wife, Rose, were among those who came out to show their support for the riders.

“These young men and women saw a challenge and took it on just as if they were completely fit and whole,” Magnus said. “They proved that they can do what able-bodied men and women won’t even attempt, and they did it with a smile.”

World T.E.A.M. Sports teams up people with and without disabilities. The group has created teams and events all over the world, including a bike ride the length of Vietnam with veterans from both sides of the Vietnam War and a 2002 bike ride from Ground Zero in New York to the Pentagon.

“Two years ago, we decided we wanted to do something for the guys who were severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Chris Carrigg, the group’s executive director. “Everyone we talked to said what we were doing was crazy. They said the guys could never make it. It was bad for their self-esteem if they couldn’t make it.”

Last year’s ride was a success for the 11 wounded troops and 125 supporters who took part, Carrigg said. “They finished the whole 110 miles, a very tough ride,” he said. “There were a lot of hills through Maryland and Pennsylvania. They had a tremendous experience.”

This year, World T.E.A.M. Sports flew in riders from all over the country, Carrigg said. Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, sent a team, as did the Marine Corps. Servicemembers who’ve been discharged in the past few years also signed up.

“The support system is incredible inside Walter Reed or National Naval,” Carrigg said, “but when they go off on their own, the support system is not as great. What we do is a nice bridge from that nice, safe, supportive cocoon, to the outside world and assimilating back into society successfully.”

All servicemembers, with and without disability, participate in the ride free of charge, he said. Civilians paid $50 and raised $500 from sponsors. American Airlines donated free trips. One of the group’s board members, Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind person to climb Mt. Everest, rode in a tandem sidecar during the ride.

“It becomes a family affair,” Carrigg said. “The bonding is really what happens in a positive way.”

Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Magnus greets Eric Frazier, a former Marine, April 29 at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., after Frazier took part in the 2007 Face of America ride sponsored by World T.E.A.M. Sports.

Nathan Potts takes a break April 29, 2007, after bicycling 110 miles from Gettysburg, Pa., to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., during the 2007 Face of America Bike Ride. World T.E.A.M. Sports sponsored the two-day event which teams up people with and without disabilities.

Country music singer Rockie Lynne (center) accompanied by Mike Dearling (left) and Kevin Douglas (right) entertain participants in the two-day, 110-mile Face of America Bike Ride April 28 at the Frederick Community College gymnasium in Frederick, Md.

Defense Dept. photos
by Linda D. Kozaryn

“The message we want to send to these guys is, ‘You’ve lost a leg; you’ve lost an arm; or you’re blinded. You can still be active. You can still be on the team. You can still be part of the fun and the camaraderie,’” Carrigg said.

As an Army combat medic, Potts served with 6th Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, and spent 11 months in Iraq. Thirty days before he was due to come home, he was riding in a Humvee that hit an improvised explosive device. Getting out of the vehicle, Potts triggered a second IED that took off his right leg below the knee.

After spending 10 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Potts went home to Konawa, Okla., a small town about 70 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, where he bought a 117-acre farm.

Last year, Potts rode a handcycle in the 2006 Face of America ride. This year, World T.E.A.M. Sports paid for his flight to Gettysburg so he could take part again.

“I’m in a lot worse shape than I was last year,” Potts said halfway through the ride during an overnight stop in Frederick, Md. “I left Walter Reed in November, and I haven’t done much since. They had the facilities for me to work out.

“Back home,” he said, “I watch the cows grow. I live in such a rural community, I have to drive an hour and a half to the city to be able to get any type of facilities for me to use.”

Potts said he has no complaints about the care he received from the military or at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Oklahoma City, where he said he gets priority care.

“About a month ago, I set up an indoor trainer and rode my bike for about 30 minutes for two weeks, and then I quit,” he said. “I got tired of it. That’s all the training I got for this.”

At the end of the second day, after nearly 14 hours of pedaling and 110 miles, Nathan Potts and his cohorts arrived at the National Naval Medical Center.

“I knew I could do it,” Potts said. “It’s just one of those things. You’ve just got to put your mind to it and do it.”

Faces of America

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor."
Henry David Thoreau

On the way to Gettysburg, I was beginning to wonder what I’d gotten myself and my 14-year-old son, Gabriel, into. On sort of a whim, I decided to join a biking team put together by a friend from church to ride in the Face of America 2007, a 110-mile ride from the Gettysburg Battlefield to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda in support of athletic events that include both able-bodied and disabled athletes. I wanted to do something meaningful with my son before the teenager he was fast becoming was too cool to hang with mom. Now, sitting in the van with serious cyclists, listening to what I think was English, but reminiscent of sitting in airports overseas, I was beginning to be afraid—very afraid.

“Have you seen the new high modulous carbon frame?”
“I recommend the pro-level Ritchey bar and stem.”

I’m a runner by trade. If you discuss mile splits, pronation and the wall, I’m with you. If the conversation contains words like carbon forks, pelleton and break away, I think you’re discussing atomic engineering. Our team captain, perhaps seeing my eyes glazing over, gave me an article from a biking magazine which provided some context, but when we arrived to a sea of bikes and more sleek-looking cycling types, my trepidation settled in for a nice long evening, becoming especially comfortable when our helpful teammates evaluated my antique Cannondale (a casualty from a friend’s divorce) and our other gear.

“Wow! I haven’t seen this in a LONG time.”
“I think I have tape for the handle bars.”
“This helmet is missing a piece.” (A runner, not a cyclist, remember?)

Fortunately, they are princes among men and, very patiently and to the exclusion of their own preparation routine, got me and my son ready for the next day.

Marines, never lacking in esprit de corps, put together a terrific and moving ceremony that moonlit night. We slept in a large tent on the edge of the vast Gettysburg battlefield; a fitful sleep at the top of a hill where, 130 years before, a Confederate general buried 17, 000 of his men. As an old Marine Corporal reminded us that night, we were indeed on hallowed ground.

The next day, cold and stiff, (I think “invigorated” is the military word) we started out on a beautiful sunlit Saturday morning, my fears evaporating with the April dew and every turn through the Gettysburg battlefield. Our pace was set by those on hand bikes, and it wasn’t long before the profundity of the experience replaced any lack of confidence. The next 30 hours were unforgettable. Conversations came in snippets, just like conversations during a marathon: only as long as both people were at the same pace. Oddly, it was like life on a small scale: you meet people for a time, they leave an impression, and you part ways.

A nine-year-old boy, enthusiastically riding his heart out for a brother he would never know except for the memories of a six year old;

A man who had accomplished what few in our world have done, summiting Mount Everest, his blindness seemingly less of a hindrance to that climb or this bike ride than the merest of annoyances;

A father whose grief flashed briefly, but starkly in his eyes when he spoke of a son lost three years ago;

Fellow active moms with whom I found comforting, humorous common ground on the subjects of family, sports, children and jobs;

A gifted musician, finding inspiration for his art in the gravity of the experience;

An enthusiastic, sharp-witted man, paralyzed two years before I was born in a jungle far away; in his early sixties, stronger on his hand bike than many of us with full use of our legs.

Then there were the almost eerie scenes, reminiscent of war: hardened faces; hurried drags on cigarettes in the rain between legs of the ride; and a bloodied body by the side of the road, urgently attended to by fellow riders.

A quiet young marine from Tennessee, his shy and smiling face belying the tragedy that took his legs less than 12 months before;

An unconquerable spirit, enthusiastically riding with hard metal pins protruding from his leg and ankle and IED-induced scars the length of his war-ravaged body, eager to tell of his miraculous recovery, perhaps not realizing that his strength of spirit alone was inspiration;

Young men on hand bikes, faces set with the fierce determination born of an unwillingness to be conquered by that which is beyond their control.

Terrible scars. Missing limbs. Sightless eyes. All trivialities that pale against the radiant wholeness of an indomitable spirit. How appropriate to call it the Face of America.

Gabe and I finished the ride, tired, but thrilled with the accomplishment. We plan to have our hoops, carbon forks and gear teeth in working order come next spring.

For information on this ride, or how to make a donation to this worthy effort, please visit the World T.E.A.M. Sports website at www.worldteamsports.org.

Wounded Troops, Supporters Ride Bicycles 110 Miles

Faces of America

Video from Face of America 2007