Meet the Team!
Olympia has the BEST staff!
The lifeblood of Olympia is its staff. From senior staff to counsellors to coaches, everyone working at Olympia is there to ensure the kids have a fantastic summer! Our staff are athletically oriented high school seniors, college or university students who are sensitive, respectful and take a personal interest in each camper. They demonstrate fairness, firmness and a fun-loving attitude in carrying out their challenging responsibilities.
We hand-pick only the finest talent
Staff are chosen for their ability to listen and respond to campers’ needs in order to provide a physically and emotionally safe environment to learn positive attitudes, skills and social behaviours.
They model and impart Olympia’s values of caring, co-operation, enthusiasm, integrity, self-leadership, risktaking and teamwork. Instructors are highly qualified in all areas of safety and instructional aspects of their sport/activity. They receive extensive training during staff orientation, with further coaching and supervision from our Unit Leaders and Directors throughout the summer.
Camp staff qualifications:
- CPR & FIRST AID trained
- National Coach Certification Program "Fundamental Movement Skills" trained
- Have had a police check
Olympia’s Everyday Hero: Dave Grace
Olympia is the dream of Dave Grace. Coach Grace talks about taking the bat off your shoulder and directing your own path to make your dreams a reality.
Dave was a successful and beloved high school teacher and coach who had a vision of starting a sports camp. He ended a 14-year teaching career and embarked on his Hero’s Journey that is still intact 50 years later. Coach Grace’s strength of character has allowed him to answer the call to adventure and find his life’s purpose. In turn he ignited The Olympia flame of the Hero’s Journey in thousands of others.
Dave’s and the camp’s philosophy are based on that of Joseph Campbell. His daily “Dave talks” mirror Campbell’s thought that just like the gods and heroes of mythology, we all have the capability to achieve, if only we trust, let go of our doubts and follow the steps wherever that Hero’s Journey takes us. We know along this journey we will meet allies and ogres. We know too that we will be called to overcome fears and challenges.
Dave Grace basically sacrificed everything to ensure Olympia became this amazing place for campers, counsellors and coaches. His passion is contagious. All he asks is that you be a positive community member, work hard, have fun, and do things that you never thought you could do. The end game of this journey is to learn that sports, or any other pursuit, are just vehicles to learn, and then teach, a way of life. To make this sometimes selfish world a better place.—Brent Evans…former camper, former staff, current coach at Olympia.
Greg Rogers, M.Ed.
Greg Rogers, Hons. B.A. , M.Ed., first visited Olympia when he was an Acting Vice-Principal at Brebeuf College School in 1991. He brought 200 students from Brebeuf as part of a grade nine orientation program to build community and commission his students as leaders in their school. Greg became Olympia’s Associate Director in 1995 and Eileen (a nurse) became the Coordinator of Olympia’s Health Centre.
Over the past 30 years at Olympia, camps that Greg founded and coached include, the One-week Leadership program, the 3-Week Leadership program (which bears a high school credit), 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Power Up, Rugby, Hockey, the Catholic Leadership Camp and the CIT program.
As well as the summer program additions, Greg has added to the Spring and Fall programs. As coordinator of Student Leadership at Toronto Catholic District School Board, Greg began student leadership programs as part of Olympia’s Outdoor Education programs in 1994. 68 students and 3 teachers initiated TCDSB’s first “Camp O” leadership weekend, designed to create positive leaders and a culture of leadership in their schools. This program continued to grow over the next 30 years and now serves as a leadership formation experience for over 2, 500 students (elementary and secondary) from the TCDSB each May.
Before retiring from TCDSB in 2016, Greg was acknowledged for his teaching with many awards including: TSU’s Teacher of the Year (2007), OTF’s Teaching and Excellence award (2009), OAPCE Life Time Contribution award, Brebeuf’s Man for Others award, CARFLEO’s Excellence in Religious Education award, CEFO’s medal of Honour award and the Patrick Fogarty Medal of Honour award (overseas programs service to others).
Greg also taught at York University’s Faculty of Education for 25 years. His first 3 classes with York’s teacher candidates always occurred at Camp Olympia.
Eileen and Greg have 7 children and 11 grandchildren, all of whom love to spend their summers at Olympia.