Often during final tribal council, a juror will ask the finalists what they would do with the money to better themselves and the world. Some answer it well, like Yul and Ozzy did in Cook Islands and some claim that they would like to become motivational speakers to little girls.

The next Oprah Winfrey

Usually once a season of Survivor is over, we tend to move and forget most of what happened. Winners take their million and do whatever they wish with it. Nobody is there to hold them up on their claim of using the prize money for good and honestly, very few would even care to find out where the cash went. They earned it, they can choose to spend it whichever way they want which for Fabio meant partying.

Every once in a while, you come across a winner who really does intend to use his winnings and status as a reality television star as a means to better the world. One such person is Survivor: Africa’s Ethan Zohn. Back when they were filming Africa, Ethan was a 27 year old trying to make it as a professional soccer player. His career was at the forefront of his mind and Survivor was a way to get more exposure, this was still they heyday of the franchise and was still an extremely popular program that was watched across the USA.

While on location in Africa, a lot of things changed for Ethan. Survivor has often been a transformative experience for its contestants and it may have never been truer than with Ethan. He saw the beauty of Africa and on a reward, got to visit a local village where he met some of its children. This was not a rich village by any means but the children were still carefree and happy. During this reward, Ethan got a chance to play hackey sack and soccer with those kids in the streets of Africa. As far as rewards go, this is probably the most cultural and enriching that Survivor has ever had. In terms of overall seasons, Africa has by far the most of these types of rewards. The experience was not lost on Ethan even as it was happening as he tells the audience in a confessional:

The smiles on their [the kids’] faces were amazing. I think I made their day. It’s hard to describe in words everything that was going on in my head. It was an experience I’ll never forget. As a life experience, it was a day I’ll never ever forget for the rest of my life.

Ethan and Lex on their reward

Those words were not just superficial. That day truly stuck with Ethan and resonated within himself even after he won the game and left Africa. In 2002, shortly after his win and thinking back to that day in the African village, Ethan got a group together and co-founded Grassroot Soccer. Much of his prize money from winning Survivor went into creating the charity and Ethan went about doing this without so much as looking for any press. He was simply doing this out of feeling a need to better the world and having the ability to do so. Ethan even stated as much in a 2010 interview with NBC News, citing that reward challenge as the catalyst for wanting to bring change to the world:

Here I am in the middle of this cultural game of Survivor, and I had this real-world experience.It was at that moment that I decided that if this was my way, if I win a lot of money or whatever happens, I am going to use that money to do something good.

Grassroot Soccer has as a mission to educate the children of Africa on HIV/AIDs through different programs that lean heavily on the soccer craze that sweeps all of Africa. It has been acclaimed for its ability to reach children that would never otherwise receive this kind of education and for its success in doing so. For Ethan, it was an obvious choice. He loved soccer and as he found out during that reward in Africa, he loved connecting with children, it was something innate within him.

They often say that the nicest people go through the most terrible things and for Ethan, that became true in 2009. He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called CD20-positive Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Ethan fought back against the cancer with chemotherapy but had it return in late 2009. By 2010, Ethan became cancer free for a second time but that was short-lived as it had a second relapse in 2011. Thankfully, he was able to once again go through treatment, this time stem cell transplants were given to him by his brother, and come out a winner and since 2013 he has been cancer free.

Even in his lowest moments, Ethan never stopped being a positive influence on the world. He remained involved with Grassroot Soccer through his sickest days and used his experiences as a way to further connect with the children he worked with. Knowing what it was like to live with a life threatening disease helped Ethan reach the kids in Africa. As he explained to NBC in 2010:

On that sense, I can kind of relate to some of the kids we work with who are nervous about going to get tested and don’t want to know their diagnosis. They don’t want to have a death sentence and they’re afraid to go to the doctor. I can relate to them in that sense if I need to stretch the link between HIV and cancer. But it is more on a sense of what we teach our kids at Grassroot Soccer is to find a great support system, to have a positive attitude, to stay healthy, and you can extend your life. With my cancer diagnosis I followed the same rules. The same stuff we are teaching our kids here in Africa, I kind of follow for myself. I guess it was a good thing for me.

Since then, Ethan has taken time to tour as a motivational speaker and continues his charitable work in Africa. None of this would have ever happened had Ethan not been cast for Survivor 16 years ago. A whole charitable organization and countless lives were saved simply because a 27 year old man was put on a game show for a million dollars. Survivor may not be the most sophisticated show on television and it may not be the most influential but Ethan’s story is a great example of how it can actually change a person.

Not everyone is going to use their winnings to change the world in the way that Ethan. That’s entirely their prerogative. That said, if there’s even a chance that Survivor could produce another winner like Ethan, its existence is validated simply from that fact. Ethan Zohn won Survivor and it was a great moment in his life but since then, he has taken great steps to ensure it wasn’t the greatest moment in his life. That kind of thinking and spirit should be an inspiration to everybody.