She has an island fantasy camp to run this week, a fall wedding - her own - to plan, an Olympic hopeful to mentor and a televised holiday show to prep for.
Yet Dorothy Hamill, the figure skater crowned "America's Sweetheart" after her gold-medal performance at the 1976 Winter Olympics, still finds time to stop for a phone call to her summer home on Nantucket to catch up.
Although she wasn't a summer camper growing up, Hamill started to get the bug to run a skating camp one year when she was sending her reluctant daughter off on an adventure.
"Alex said, 'I don't want to go to camp,' and I'm thinking, 'Well I do,' " says Hamill, laughing. "Baltimore has a great adult skating community, and I thought, 'This would be a gas to put together for adults who still want to learn and challenge themselves and not drop off the face of the Earth just because they're getting older.' "
She recruited longtime collaborators Nathan Birch and Tim Murphy and added Peter Carruthers, the 1984 Olympic silver medalist in pairs with sister Kitty, and Randy Gardner, who with Tai Babilonia won a world title and five U.S. national championships.
"We'll be teaching and coaching and sharing some of the great experiences we've had," Hamill says of her camp, which costs $4,800 for five days. "We're going to eat well and share stories."
This is the second year Hamill has escaped the heat of Baltimore summers for the cool Atlantic breezes of Nantucket, 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.
Her fiance, John MacColl, has family there. His little two-story cottage seemed perfect for Hamill to continue her recovery from breast cancer while the two decided whether they could make separate lives one.
"It didn't even occur to me that Nantucket had a skating rink," says Hamill, laughing. "But it's about a five-minute walk from the house. The rink is beautiful, and the quality of the ice is great."
Nantucket Ice Community Rink will serve as base camp for the 16 campers.
"It's kind of more than I expected for the first year," she says of the turnout.
Hamill also has agreed to mentor Rachael Flatt, the 2008 junior world champion and 2008 and 2009 national silver medalist from Colorado Springs, Colo. The two worked together this summer in Lake Placid, N.Y., home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics.
"It's hard to do that long-distance, but I'm honored to be asked," Hamill says. "I'll just be there to listen and make suggestions."
