Ethan Zohn brings message of social responsibility to Middlesex Community College
From lowellsun.com
By Andrew Ravens, Sun Staff
You’d think after winning a million bucks one might take it easy. You know, do nothing, like that character in the movie Office Space.
That’s certainly not the case with Ethan Zohn, the Lexington native who won Survivor Africa — and paid his taxes, by the way — and invested the cash in an African nonprofit organization bent on fighting the AIDS epidemic.
When he’s not in Africa helping to run the Zimbabwe-based Grass Roots Soccer, Zohn is on the road two or three weeks per month speaking with high school and college students.
He will appear at Lowell’s DoubleTree Hotel on Tuesday as part of Middlesex Community College’s “One World Series,” which features speakers who address a variety of topical topics.
Zohn’s message speaks about character and values, which he credits for helping him win Survivor’s $1 million prize.
“One person can make a difference in the world — for me it was going on Survivor and I was able to use the celebrity and money to create change,” said Zohn, a former professional soccer player easily recognized by his curly hair. “But my point is: You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Donald Trump to create change.”
When the reality show stripped him of everything — food, water, clean clothes — Zohn said he realized all he had left was his personality and character. He relied on his values to create relationships to ultimately win the contest.
“You don’t have to be an evil, back-stabbing pig to win the game,” said Zohn, 32, who graduated from Lexington High School and Vassar College in upstate New York.
He learned extensively about Africa’s AIDS crisis — where the life expectancy in some areas has dropped by 38 percent in the last decade –while playing soccer in Zimbabwe.
With his 15 minutes of fame fading, Zohn collected a bunch of his sports buddies and started training professional soccer players — the only true role models in Africa — in AIDS and HIV education and prevention. The pros now take that message into African classrooms.
Grass Roots Soccer, which now operates in eight different countries and has graduated more than 1 million children, now exists in the United States under the name Kick Aid. Zohn tours high schools to raise money for Kick Aid and spread AIDS awareness.
Just 10 minutes into a telephone conversation with Zohn, it’s very apparent that doing nothing about Africa’s health crisis is not an option for him.