Teter Competes for Good Cause

While a majority of Hannah Teter's (Belmont, VT) life revolves around riding whenever she can, the Olympic gold medalist is also a philanthropist who uses her success to sponsor the village of Kirindon in Kenya. Read on to find out Teter's contribution to this struggling village and her plans to donate this season.

"My charity Hannah's Gold sponsors Kirindon and we recently went there to really get a feel of what's going on and what the money is doing," Teter said. "It was so inspiring because not only is the money doing a lot, it's just impacting the whole community."

Teter donates all the proceeds from her Hannah's Gold maple syrup and will be donating any prize money she earns this season. She is also hosting an auction on Go211.com where people can bid on snowboarding gear and also has plans to start selling "Goodness" sweatbands on the site.

Her drive to raise so much money has impacted the village by providing clean water, the extension of a school building and funds a private school for runaway girls.

"The clean water project and wells and rain catchment systems make a huge difference. We saw some of the old drinking holes and they are just so dirty," Teter said. "We also got to see an addition that was put on one of the schools that really needed it and there's also a boarding school being funded by us now that's for girls who have run away from marriages."

An expansion of her charitable deeds in Kirindon is also in the works for Teter.

"We're also trying to buy land for an AIDS group for all the women who have been kicked out of their homes when their husbands discovered they had AIDS," Teter said.

According to Teter, the influence of her family and a desire at a young age have been the things driving her to do good for others.

"For me, just being raised in a family where they supported us with love, I always knew how good I had it. When snowboarding came around I thought it was a complete circle because there was my passion and it got to be my job and I was so stoked, but I knew a lot of people didn't have it as good as I did," Teter said. "I always knew I wanted to do something to help out other people because there are so many of us on this planet and a lot of us don't get to do what we love. I just want to make it easier for kids who have it hard."

For Teter, the best part of her being able to help is just being able to see that she does improve things through her endeavors.

"It makes me want to do more. To see how far it actually goes when you put it in your mind that you want to do something, it just fuels my fire to want to keep making money and keep doing this kind of thing," Teter said. "There's a lot that needs to be done and for me this is one of my avenues of trying to help out."

To help Teter fund Kirindon visit Go211.com to bid on auction items or buy her sweatbands, or visit http://www.hannahsgold.com/ to purchase a bottle of her maple syrup.