Tuesday's With Dave

 SAVE THE DATE Looking for the perfect gift to stocking stuffer for your favourite Olympian? Want to learn about your journey by reading about the journey of others? Want to stop by and connect for a few minutes?  A Hero’s Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp is a compiled history of the 50-year span of Olympia Sports Camp in Huntsville, Ontario through the lens of its founder and inspiration, Dave Grace, and many long-time Olympia staff and coaches. The hero’s journey of the title is Dave Grace’s adaptation of the writings and teachings of philosopher Joseph Campbell.    The basic tenet of Grace’s hero’s journey is that all heroes go through a 12-step process- from getting out of their comfort zone to finding a 'new normal' in seeking the path they are after. That us growth.  The new normal they find is where the hero bestows knowledge they learned on their journey on others in order to help them on their journey. In analyzing our physical, em...

Long-time week 7 Coach Passes Away Some sad news to share. Longtime Olympia week 7 volleyball coach Ed Millard passed away last week. I first saw the word of his death from the "Godfather of Week 7" Rod McHugh. Rod sent me the link to Sudbury.com where I read the obituary. Never having met the man, I was amazed at the journey of this world-class athlete who just happened to be a weekly coach at Olympia Sports Camp for many years. As with most heroes, Ed seems to have taken that champion pedigree to helping others strive to reach their goals.  Dave Grace always took great pride in getting the best of the best to coach at Olympia and in Ed Millard he sure accomplished that goal. I spoke to other week 7 veterans and they called Ed " A Gentle giant" who was loved by the campers. A coach who had an infectious laugh and a passion for volleyball that inspired other coaches and campers alike. To Ed's family and all members of his week 7 family who knew Ed well, all Olym...

 Kiwanis Camper Perspective on life at Interlaken A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp  explores the history of the land that we have all called Olympia Sports Camp for the last 50 years. The book looks at the Indigenous beginnings of the area, the European settlement process from 1850 to 1920, and the purchase of the land in 1942 by the Royal Norwegian Air Force to be used as Vessel Skaugum,  a training adjunct to their training base at the Muskoka Airport. The land was sold in 1945 to the Kiwanis Club of Toronto, which ran a camp for underprivileged children until 1975, and then ultimately the property was bought  by Dave Grace for his permanent location of OSC in 1979.  The Kiwanis years bring another layer of the use of the land for the good of others, and we're sure that the stories from those 30 years mirror what has taken place at Olympia since. People who love Olympia Sports Camp will love the story of Doug Pasley. Just a few we...

 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 ...

 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 journe...

 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, ...

 Anniversary at Olympia A personal journey in this entry. Today, Aug 30, is our 44th wedding anniversary. I'm proud to say that. The greatest thing Joy and I were blessed with was our kids, Nicole and Daniel. . I wrote in A Hero's Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp that I saw the best version of my kids when they showered their Nan with love in her final months, but seeing them now as adults, and especially Nicole a mom, makes a parent proud.  The newest joy in our life is Nicole's daughter, and our granddaughter, Mia Lillian Mayes. People who are grandparents know this but the instant Mia came into the world our appreciation of life, and love, changed. I now see Nicole as a beautiful mother and Mia as the beacon for what the future will bring. Part of your journey, of course, involved many years at Olympia, and there's a typical coaching connection to our anniversary. I was a week nine coach and our anniversary fell during week nine. I missed 6 ann...