Tuesday's With Dave

 National Day of Truth and Reconciliation With September 30th being the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation we must look at what binds us together rather than what separates us. This takes me back to one of the most spiritual days on my journey of writing this book; my first visit to the Dyer Memorial. Greg Rogers told me about the site when I was visiting the camp during COVID. He said it  was a solemn, special place in the lexicon of Olympia. He spoke of the power of seeing the Memorial and what it has meant to hundreds of staff over the years. I had to check it out. Timing, they say, is everything. I was up at camp the very week of the gruesome discovery of the remains of students at the residential school in Kamloops, B.C.   The Dyer Memorial is a beautiful stone structure in the middle of the woods about 6km along Harp Lake Road, which is just a few kilometres west of the Limberlost Road turn off of Hwy 60, east of Huntsville. Clifton Dyer built the monument in 1956 to honour

 An Excerpt from A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp People ask me all the time to describe my book, and I find myself still working on my elevator story. Is it a history of the land of Interlaken where Olympia Sports Camp now resides? Is it a collection of stories through interviews about the people at Olympia?  Is it philosophical in nature? Is it a motivational tool? Is it about mentoring and leadership? Will I learn about myself when reading this book, even though I know nothing about Olympia? The answer is yes. This excerpt is taken from the introduction to Chapter 4- Meet the Mentors. The book interviewed 13 coaches from across the breadth of the Olympia experience and their stories enhance the view that a hero on a journey needs mentors to help them figure out the path. The athlete dreaming of next steps, the student whose goals may far outweigh their current situation,and even to the parents of a newborn who know they are on a new journey that is

 Two things learned through the journey of researching and writing   A Heros' Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp. One is that along your journey you meet a lot of amazing leaders and people who make the world, at least your world, a better place, and secondly that it isn't the accomplishments we attain along our journey but rather our impact on others that measures the true return of an everyday hero. Case in Point: Ron Yamanaka First of all, here's Sensei Yamanaka's Olympia Sports Camp journey. As you will see it's a small part of  his story but one in which he has inspired hundreds. He and his wife Brenda, affectionately  known as Mamasan, have been coming to Olympia "forever and a day." They started a martial arts program in the mid 1980's and are still doing it, albeit with daughter Jaime taking over. Jaime basically grew up in a dojo and now she is part of the legacy of the teachings of her sensei, her dad.  At 75 years of age,