Tuesday's With Dave

  The journey of  Rebecca Gonser  to Olympia Sports camp was maybe pre-destined and so too was her choice of profession but the impact she has had is as genuine and inspiring as the person she is.  Mom and dad were both in the health care field and she always thought that was something she wanted to do. Born and raised near Stratford, Ontario, as a child Rebecca loved cottaging in the Muskoka area and especially at the family cottage near Bancroft. When she was 8 her cousins were going to a sports camp in Huntsville called Olympia so she decided that she would like to go too. She started going for a week every summer and loved it. How much? She went as a camper for six or seven years. Her favourite aspect of  Olympia? The counsellors.                “I thought the counsellors were the coolest people I'd ever met,” Rebecca recalls,”. It became my dream to someday be on staff. I got all my certifications to be a lifeguard with the full-on purpose to get a job here.” Rebecca came on s

Need something done? They say that when you need something done, find a busy person. For Dave Grace that person for almost 20 years has been Michelle Stockstill. How much so? At staff development week he often introduces Michelle as the person who runs Olympia.   Michelle has always been a leader. In fact, she was student council president at Oakville Trafalgar High School when she applied for a job at Olympia. She had been a camper and she loved the idea of working there.   Oops Dave. She didn’t get the job, but that got rectified as Michelle got called back and was hired  for the tuck and pro shop, a job that normally didn’t include cabin duties. Nothing is normal about the Olympia path of Michelle Stockstill. Later she was asked to cover for cabin duties and was so good at it that she won the first-year female award at the year-end banquet.   Michelle’s journey took her from counsellor to senior staff to Unit Leader. She saw the next progression to be hired as a programmer. Sometime

The Land and It’s People A project like writing a book, or any journey one takes in life, can take you down many tangents and new directions. Let me describe one I’m on.    The 47-year history of Olympia Sports Camp is an impressive legacy that is being chronologized in “ A Hero’s Journey: From (Beyond) Little Norway to Olympia Sports Camp.” Impressive too is the European settlement process in Muskoka that started in the late 1800’s and led to the settlement of Interlaken and Limberlost Lodge in the 1920’s. Impressive also is the very land we call home for a week, or ten weeks, every summer, was a training ground for the Norwegian Air Force during WW 11. But the truth is that, like any historical exploration, there is so much more.   10,000+ years more.   The process to gather the history of the land before it became home to Olympia in 1979 led to a lot about the European arrivals but thoughts about the beauty of the land, the almost spiritual and communal way in which Olympia sports c

Never let on, but it’s up you're going !   This is a saying that my mother-in-law used to always say, and to be honest I never really understood it. Until now.   Joy lost her 92-year-old mom last week, and the saying is an appropriate tribute to a life well lived. If there's ever a hero’s journey, it is the journey of Lillian Kane.   The gist of the saying is that the journey through life will bring joys and hardships, and all we can do is just keep going. We have no choice. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep learning, keep growing. The very best. That is what makes us a hero in our own journey.   Nan went through a lot in her journey, including being a widow at 51 and losing two sons to cancer, but it was maritime toughness, and strong belief in the gospel, that kept her looking up.  The fighting spirit she showed throughout her whole life was evident to the end. I remember two years ago speaking to my Week 5 Olympia family about her being given two to three wee