Oleksiak digs into a new role on ‘cool’ mission to Ecuador
nothing for Oleksiak, who signed a three-year, $6,412,500 contract extension with the Penguins July 12. It was actually “eye-opening” and “humbling,” the hulking defenseman said.
“I’m really glad I did it,” Oleksiak said. “It was a great experience.”
The Oleksiak family has gotten involved with ME to WE through his younger sister Penny — a decorated swimmer for Canada’s Olympic team — who serves as a spokesperson for the group.
The Oleksiaks went to Kenya last year, and Jamie’s parents, Richard and Alison, kept beating their son’s ear about it, telling him he had to go. Eventually, they left the 25-year-old Toronto native little choice.
“They couldn’t stop talking about it,” Oleksiak said. “They brought it up to me this year and basically ‘no optioned’ me. I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought I would give it a try.”
After flying into a small airport in Quito, Ecuador, the group traveled to several tiny villages via canoes along the Amazon River.
Jamie said building bathrooms is a popular task because, well, there aren’t many, and personal hygiene often lacks — which matches ME to WE’s mission of ingraining itself in a community’s culture and helping out with whatever is needed, even something as simple as hand washing.
Once the group arrived in a small town — they visited several — the 40 or so people Oleksiak was with had to walk around 100 yards to find any sort of civilization; nobody can live closer because of repeated flooding.
“You’re walking from the river to the villages, and it’s thick, thick rainforest,” Oleksiak said. “I kept thinking, ‘How did people hundreds of years ago build these places and get through all this thick bush and everything?’ It was wild.” And fun. Part of what Oleksiak did was charitable and mission-focused. It was also educational.
“They were showing us how they were working with local farmers because cocoa plants are big there,” Oleksiak said. “They were working with local farmers to teach them how to harvest the cocoa and make their own chocolate, coffee beans and bring money into their communities. It was a really cool experience.”
Before he left for the trip, Oleksiak said he worried about missing workouts for hockey. That, of course, turned out to be a non-issue.
“By the end of it, trust me, I was ready to get back to the gym,” Oleksiak said. “It was extremely difficult.”
Besides shoveling and carrying stones, Oleksiak poured some concrete and dug a lot of holes.
“I don’t often do a lot of labor like that,” Oleksiak said. “I definitely don’t enjoy it, but, in that instance, it was a really cool experience and motivating.”
Before Oleksiak left for Ecuador, he thought it might be the sort of thing where he heard talk about charity or raising money or something like that. It turned out to be way more fulfilling.
“I’m hoping to get a chance to do it next year if I’m lucky enough,” Oleksiak said. “It was cool. I wasn’t too sure what this was going to be about. I was kind of expecting to go there, and they might talk at us for a little bit and try to sell you on charity or something like that.
“It was really informative. It was a lot more involvement in the communities, helping them out and feeling that you have a connection with them. I thought that was cool.”