
Dream Team Is Dedicated To Mentoring At-Risk Youth Helping Them To Accomplish Goals
Clip: Season 4 Episode 402 | 8m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Dream Team is dedicated to mentoring at-risk youth helping them to accomplish goals through cycling.
The Dream Team is a nonprofit cycling organization that is dedicated to mentoring disadvantaged and at-risk youth. Watch their confidence grow as they train and ride across the state of Iowa on RAGBRAI. They realize they can accomplish big goals.
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Iowa Life is a local public television program presented by Iowa PBS

Dream Team Is Dedicated To Mentoring At-Risk Youth Helping Them To Accomplish Goals
Clip: Season 4 Episode 402 | 8m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
The Dream Team is a nonprofit cycling organization that is dedicated to mentoring disadvantaged and at-risk youth. Watch their confidence grow as they train and ride across the state of Iowa on RAGBRAI. They realize they can accomplish big goals.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[LEADER] Everywhere we go.
[TEAM] Everywhere we go.
[LEADER] People want to know.
[TEAM] People want to know.
[LEADER] Who we are.
[TEAM] Who we are.
[LEADER] So we tell them.
[TEAM] So we tell them.
[LEADER] We are the Dream Team.
[TEAM] We are the Dream Team.
[LEADER] The mighty, mighty Dream Team.
[TEAM] The mighty, mighty Dream Team.
[CARLOS LINDBERG] For RAGBRAI, I thought a week away from my parents would be like an absolute miracle.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] It was just like more opportunities.
More friendship.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] And a meaning of who you are and what you can do in the future.
♪♪ [CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] Last year before I started out very lost and I didn't really find my people at all.
For a long time I just used video games as a way for me to try and cope with that.
[cheering] [CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] Then when I started riding the bikes, I started slowly realizing that exercise helps get rid of anxiety and stress.
[applause] [PERLA ZARAGOZA] All I heard was he's going to be gone for a week and do a bike ride across Iowa, and I said, who's going to take care of him?
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] The Dream Team is an all volunteer nonprofit organization that mentors youth.
[SCOTT MATTER] Put the final touches on.
Get that final touches.
Let's get ready.
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] We provide everything for our youth.
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] Our season each year goes from March through RAGBRAI at the end of July, and we started with 60 kids this year, and they train during those five months to do RAGBRAI.
When they come to us, a lot of them, their longest ride is 2 or 3 miles.
We even have a lot of kids don't know how to bike at all.
[CARLOS LINDBERG] I was so scared I didn't know anyone.
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] What makes Dream Team special is our process.
All of our time is focused on cycling, but that's not what we're really about.
Our mentors, they're good at helping them bike, but more importantly, they're good at just helping them gain self-confidence.
They're patient with them and they take them through it and they help them get better every week.
♪♪ [RANDY COLLINS] I don't really have a lot of friends.
♪♪ [RANDY COLLINS] I'm more of a quiet keep to myself, kid.
Or at least was.
There's new experiences almost every ride.
It's a lot of fun.
♪♪ [RANDY COLLINS] There's a bunch of activities.
You get to go camping.
♪♪ [RANDY COLLINS] But you also got to bike 500 miles across the state of Iowa.
[applause] ♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] By the time we get to RAGBRAI they are some of the best cyclists amongst the 30,000 people that are out there riding across the state of Iowa.
♪♪ [INEZ CHAVEZ] My older brother was like, I don't think you'll be able to do it because you're into like such girly things.
It kind of made me second guess myself.
And then I was like, oh, well, maybe he's right.
♪♪ [INEZ CHAVEZ] It's not as hard as it seems when you have the right people leading you and guiding you.
It definitely makes it a lot easier.
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] Our Dream Team kids are well known on RAGBRAI.
Every mile of RAGBRAI, many people are cheering for them.
(cheering) [SCOTT MATTER] People help us at every step of the way.
♪♪ [INEZ CHAVEZ] We have so many supporters with us and it's just really surreal because they're just like chanting us on and we're like, wow, we have so many supporters there that are also part of our family that we didn't know were a part of our family.
[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] And I found people who actually accepted who I am and not trying to change me.
And the people in the community are awesome.
They will help me if I need help.
My mind gets to turn off when I ride the bike.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] As I went deeper into this season of Dream Team, I realized it was just more than a week away from my parents.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] It's my goal to ride RAGBRAI and complete it and actually find out who I really am.
[INEZ CHAVEZ] And we all have our hard days, but we all push each other to do the best we can, and that's really helped a lot, just having a great community.
[SCOTT MATTER] There's no better feeling than knowing that you're helping some teen change their life in a way that's going to allow them to go on a whole different path that they didn't even think was possible.
And that's pretty fulfilling.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] It's more than just a bike.
I know that they love me and I love them too.
♪♪ [SCOTT MATTER] We can celebrate together.
We can cry together.
We go through every emotion that you can, and they're really good at supporting each other.
What we're really trying to give them a blueprint for, that they accomplish those big dreams.
[PERLA ZARAGOZA] Everything they built, It's amazing.
I knew that I wanted all my kids to be part of it, because I know that when I drop off one kid for that season, I know I'm going to get a better version by the end of the season because they have learned to believe in themselves.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] I love the sights.
It's beautiful.
It's really hard going up some of those hills, but I wouldn't change my mind.
♪♪ [CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] I've actually accepted myself as a good person now.
I know how to deal with social anxiety better.
I don't really talk bad about myself anymore because I'm not allowed to.
I'm not allowed to hate on myself.
♪♪ [CARLOS LINDBERG] I feel like my confidence has grown.
There's something I can say that I've done and be proud of.
♪♪ [INEZ CHAVEZ] Taught me that I can do hard things and that I should believe in myself way more.
When you have the right mindset, you can do a lot more things than you think you can.
♪♪
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