ARLINGTON, Va. — Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren recently announced his new charity program called “Lindy’s Lineup”. The mission of Lindy’s Lineup is to provide opportunities for youth involved in adaptive sports as well as for children in special education classrooms.
Following Monday’s practice, Lindy’s Lineup and Nic Dowd’s charity, “Dowd’s Crowd”, which focuses on helping children with sensory issues, teamed up with “So Kids SOAR” to host a skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex filled with more than 50 children that have physical and mental disabilities.
“I think this is a huge credit to the Capitals organization. They do such a phenomenal job. When we started talking to [Director of Fan Development, Caroline Potolicchio] about starting a foundation charity, she made it so incredibly easy,” Lindgren said. “I’ve known Nic and Paige for a long time, so that relationship was already bonded and formed. The Capitals set it up and it just was something that made sense. It was kind of hitting the checklist of what we’re trying to check off.”
So Kids SOAR is a non-profit organization that provides adaptations to help children with physical disabilities play sports and participate in other recreational activities. Kids tried different hockey related activities such as shooting rubber pucks on players and learning how to skate. Other players such as Hendrix Lapierre, Beck Malenstyn and Rasmus Sandin were also on the ice to take part in the festivities.
Wholesome moments aplenty at today’s skate with Lindy’s Lineup, Dowd’s Crowd and @sokidssoar!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/c2rskQmRB6
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 20, 2023
“I think my favorite thing about that skate is honestly just seeing the smiles. The kids there were all so sweet. There’s a couple in sleds, a couple in wheelchairs, but all of them out there we’re having a blast, and that’s what it’s all about,” Lindgren said. “Hopefully I helped brighten up their day, brighten up their life, and I can say 100% [that] they’ve definitely brightened up my life too. I had a really fun time doing that [and] I know my wife did too.”
Lindgren’s wife, Mikkayla, has a strong background in pediatric occupational therapy, which is the big inspiration behind the program. The Capitals netminder says that Mikkayla pitched the idea of starting a charity over the summer.
“I think we’re called to make this world a better place and that starts by being a good person,” Lindgren said. “This community has been really good to us. We’ve absolutely loved our time here. We’ve met so many good people and we definitely want to just make a positive impact back to the people that have been so good to us.”
When Lindgren was young, he had the opportunity to meet some of the players on his hometown team, the Minnesota Wild. He says that meeting those professional athletes had a lasting impact on him. Once he turned pro, Lindgren wanted to have that same impact that his idols had on him.
However, because he has been bouncing through the minors and different NHL clubs, he wasn’t able to settle in one community to start his own organization. That was not until he landed in Washington last year for his first full-time NHL gig.
“I think it was an obvious thing for us to do something good and now we figured it was a good time,” Lindgren said. “I got two years left on my deal, obviously hockey is a crazy sport, crazy business, but certainly we just wanted to start something to actually hit the ground running and move forward and start actually making an impact.”
But his goal for Monday’s skate was simple.
“My goal is literally to just make the world a better place,” Lindgren said. “I don’t really care what that is. If there’s an opportunity for me to go out and make someone happy, I know I want to do that, and my wife wants to do that. We want to be positive stewards in this world and so that’s what we’re going to do and that’s what we’re planning on doing.”
By Jacob Cheris