From – Harold Tomlin

We all meet people who influence us in our lives and Val Friesen certainly played a major roll in mine.

Val never was my teacher. But around 1957 I had a cub (scout) father and son banquet and my dad was not available. Val found out, somehow, that I was not going so he stepped up and became my father for an evening and I went with him to my banquet.

Fast forward 8 or 9 years, I had dropped out of school and was working at Oliver sawmill, Val’s dad, Ray, was the sawmill superintendent. Val came to the mill to visit with his dad and found out I was working there, so came out into the yard to visit me. In our conversation he ask me what I was going to do with my life I explained that I wanted to take a trade but my lack of education was holding me back. He said that he thought he could help me and invited me to come to his dad’s place that night after work. At this time he was an agent for First Nations education and was involved in setting up a program at BCIT called BTSD, Basic Training For Skilled Developement.

He sat me down at the kitchen table and dictated a letter for me to write. The BTSD program had 50% native youth put there by Val and the rest were sent by probation officers, corrections, and social workers. Even though I did not qualify under any of these agency’s he pull some strings and I got in. I completed the program in 5 months and was accepted into my trade within a year. I had a successful career and I completed a grade 12 equivalent a few years later.

I was part of a management team with several large corporations and started a successful business which I operated for 20 years. It isn’t often one gets the opportunity to thank someone who played a major roll in their development.

So now in my 70th year I would like to say THANK YOU VAL – you certainly influenced my life.