Joe Ouellette gets to live every American-born hockey player’s dream next week.

The Lewiston native will pull a sweater over his head with the letters U-S-A emblazoned across the front, sharpen his skates, tighten the laces and represent his nation on an international ice rink.

Perhaps best of all, in this case, the cause is one greater than himself, or his team, or his country.

Ouellette is the youngest in a group of middle-aged men from the Industrial Men’s Hockey League of Portland that will tour Japan and play fund-raising exhibition games against the host nation’s 1998 Olympic team.

Proceeds will benefit orphans from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011.

“It’s not only the trip of a lifetime, but it’s pretty cool that there’s a cause behind it,” Ouellette said.

The tour is organized by Steve Tsujiura, longtime face of the Maine Mariners and formerly an assistant coach with the Portland Pirates. Tsujiura represented Japan in the 1998 Olympics.

Deron Barton, a mid-1980s Merrimack College star who recently coached Falmouth High School to its first Class A state championship, also is on the squad.

Most of the players are in their 40s and 50s. Ouellette and one other are the youngest at 35. The oldest member of the traveling party is 66-year-old Takahiro Sato, owner of the Yosaku Japanese Restaurant that sponsors the team.

Ouellette said most of the players were teammates until about two years ago, when the league split into over-30 and over-40 divisions to maintain competitive balance.

“It’s a good group of guys. We pretty much had one practice last week and one more this week before we leave,” said Ouellette, who graduated in 1997 from Lewiston High School, where he played goalie. “We meet every week back at the clubhouse, which is what we call the restaurant, to talk about the games. Even though we don’t play each other, we learn a lot from those older guys. We’re kind of like the farm team.”

Already there are numerous signs of the host country rolling out the red carpet to the Maine delegation, which leaves Portland on April 4 and is scheduled to return April 11.

The team was asked to pose for a picture on Saint Patrick’s Day. “The newspaper there wanted it for a story to let people know we’re coming,” Ouellette said.

And even though the time difference will trim the visit to a whirlwind five days, there will be time for at least one significant event away from the ice.

Ouellette and the team are scheduled to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“At first it was, ‘Hey, guys, you want to go to Japan and play a couple of games?’ and ‘Yeah, sure,’ to where it’s just taken off,” Ouellette said.

Team Yosaku has done its part to help the cause, maintaining a collection box at the restaurant.

Playing with Tsujuira, the charismatic, 5-foot-6 dynamo who scored 117 goals in parts of seven seasons with the Mariners, has heightened the experience for Ouellette.

“As a kid I always looked up to him as a hockey player,” he said. ” I would go to camps where he was teaching. It’s kind of crazy to grow up and be able to play with a guy who was one of your heroes.”

Ouellette made the transition to goalie at age 11 but is happy to have returned to skating end-to-end in the adult league.

He noted that little defense is played in over-30 hockey and that the unfortunate soul between the pipes usually faces 50 or more shots per game.

Then again, he likely would serve in any capacity to be part of the upcoming journey.

“It’s definitely something at this age that I never would have expected to do,” Ouellette said.

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