Volunteer Spotlight

Tyson Hunter

“It’s more than just giving kids opportunities to play sport”

Tyson Hunter | Athlete, Coach, Volunteer & Trip Participant

“TeamUp has impacted my life in big ways through the trips that I’ve been on, whether that’s an international trip or the local initiatives that we’re a part of. It has opened my eyes to see that my gifts are bigger than myself and that I can use them to positively impact people.

TeamUp has given me such a cool platform and opportunity to do just that. It’s been a really fun adventure being able to use what I’ve been given to bless, love, and impact people using my gifts and who I am.

We live in a very individualist world, so it’s super important to learn the importance of community and working as a team. It’s more than just giving kids opportunities to play sport, it opens so many opportunities and doors. It gives them a sense of belonging and teaches them valuable life skills like work ethic, problem solving, working together as a team, overcoming conflict and life long friendships that they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives.

There are so many cool ways that sport positively affects people now, but also provides a bigger and brighter future for them and their community.

I’ve been on 3 international trips to both Paraguay and Peru on each of those trips, and there has been so many cool moments and stories that I can look back on. Including all the people that we’ve impacted in those communities we work alongside with, but then also the lives of the participants on the trips and the impact and life change that has happened there.

You can see they’ve just found something on these trips, even though they were the ones looking to go make an impact, the communities we work in made just as big an impact on their own lives.

Probably one of the coolest stories would be what we witnessed the time Cristian’s house burnt down in Paraguay. When we heard this, right away we said ok what can we do?

We show up to help out and his community is already there cleaning up and building a new foundation. It was such a cool image to show what TeamUp is ultimately about. We’ve come alongside this community and we’ve impacted lives, but now those lives have gone on to impact their own community.

Changing lives on the greater scale and seeing those lives impact their own communities…I am so glad I got to be a part of that.

TeamUp partnering with organizations is a really big deal. It allows those organizations in their own communities to be the driving force behind what’s going on. They know the cultural implications, they know and love those communities and it gives a sustainable impact to those communities.

We are partnering with organizations that will be there for the long haul. We can learn from each other, sharing tools and resources, and they can continue implementing them even without us. It's definitely a cool and sustainable way to go about making an impact.

I’m super excited for future initiatives. Probably what excites me the most is being able to go and help positively impact lives, seeing people in the places like Cristian’s community, and more examples like that in these places whether that’s Paraguay, Malawi, or even at home in Burnaby.

I just can’t wait to be a part of more stories and hear about all the cool ways that sport and TeamUp come alongside other organizations to make an impact together. To see more positive impact out of all those relationships and partnerships…I just can’t wait.

I am very excited to continue building into lives and future leaders, and also bringing more people along to see and feel that impact as participants on trips.

Those have been some of the coolest memories I have, is just seeing everyone come along and feel changed and impacted themselves.

I am just as excited to see the impact that the participants have going back to their own communities. It is probably what excites me the most, is to be a part of more stories and hear more ways that lives have been positively impacted through sport and through our building projects.

It can be a little uncomfortable to jump outside ourselves and to give up our time, energy and money or whatever it may be. But it is just so worth it.

In the ways that I’ve been impacted, what you get from giving back to others and loving others is life changing and it’s something you shouldn't miss out on. TeamUp provides a super fun, engaging and practical way to go about doing it.

Get involved anyway you can, whether that’s overseas or even local initiates. It is awesome building into the lives of kids, families and their communities, you for sure won’t be disappointed.”

-Tyson Hunter