It is the night before what would have been Sam's 62nd birthday. So, as with each passing year, my thoughts go out to honour Sam and his legacy. This year, to honour Sam, I am compelled to write a love letter to you, Geoff Tisch.
This morning you were all up in my thoughts and it is high time I put to paper this love letter. You "saw" Sam. When many saw a somewhat aimless hippie, you saw the gifted athlete and someone who, by very reason of being so intact themselves, was a most influential fellow. And, realizing it was doubtful to recruit Sam to come up to staff Educo without me along you also took a chance on a teenage girl still in high school. I had a letter of permission to cross the border from my mother! Imagine. We hit the border with another pal after a few weeks on the road. We had to detour to Powell River to get 3rd gear fixed by Sam's Uncle Jack. The old red truck was running on a prayer and we had about $16.00 between us when we crossed the Canadian border headed up to the wilds of the Cariboo.
Geoff Tisch
Dear Geoff,This morning you were all up in my thoughts and it is high time I put to paper this love letter. You "saw" Sam. When many saw a somewhat aimless hippie, you saw the gifted athlete and someone who, by very reason of being so intact themselves, was a most influential fellow. And, realizing it was doubtful to recruit Sam to come up to staff Educo without me along you also took a chance on a teenage girl still in high school. I had a letter of permission to cross the border from my mother! Imagine. We hit the border with another pal after a few weeks on the road. We had to detour to Powell River to get 3rd gear fixed by Sam's Uncle Jack. The old red truck was running on a prayer and we had about $16.00 between us when we crossed the Canadian border headed up to the wilds of the Cariboo.
Sam Dice
We arrived at the rustic Educo site a day or so before the young men, many of the students in the early woolly days from reform institutions in Vancouver! And then you did some remarkable things. You did a fierce Maori dance, shouting and tongue wagging menacingly. It might have been more frightening had you not been in a pink towel. But the fellows were suitably drawn in to wonder what in the hell they got themselves into.
You showed them how to jump the stumps in the mosquito infested forest "high obstacle" course. One wrong move and the family jewels were in peril. You deferred to Sam's more youthful and fast jumps as only a secure mentor would. We lost one of the runners overnight. And you lost all sorts of things. Watches, passports, wallets. I took it as part of my job to figure out where you'd put the students valuables for safe keeping. We made a good team that way.
Most shocking and most imprinted on me was your repeated mantra to this band of misfits; staff and students both. "YOU ARE PERFECT, UPRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL!!" Now, what a new concept that was! Not, you need to get better, you need to change, you need to grow, you need to be other than what you are. No. Educo, your creation. Educo = "to draw forth." What a gift.
How long overdue this love letter. How many young people were changed forever because you saw the best in them and taught them it was just a matter of drawing out all that was just perfect in them. And, your legacy continues up in those woods. What a wonder: the thousands of students who came to the wilderness feeling uncertain and ashamed and left feeling empowered and unstoppable.
Yes, all the solos, mountain climbing, challenges and camaraderie shaped those fortunate enough to be in your orbit. But most of the earth shaking change came from hearing that there was a least one person who thought they were just terrific. And if you saw them as great....well, maybe they had a shot in this big world.
I can hear your laugh in my head from those days and know it would sound just the same today, Geoff. Remember when the Raysons came to Dog Creek and I reported to you that I wasn't sure they were speaking English -- ha! They had such a thick English accent it was hard to make out their words. And the "nut man" Jim Miller -- with his wife Pat also on staff. You got together the most wonderful blend of people to work together.
This season with you at Educo -- with Sam -- and the next, were foundation building in a way nothing else could have been. And I love you for that. And I love that after Sam's accidental death you insisted on helping me build a dog house big enough for our two German Shepards, Silver and Niko. Those nights working in the wood shop with you, talking about all things meaningful and all things silly helped me get used to my new reality. A 25 year old widow able to make a new life because of friends like you.
It's been decades since I've seen you -- but looking at your picture I can see your fire has not abated and your mischief has not been diminished with age.
Thank you, Geoff.
