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By Christl Dabu
Stuart McLean takes the motto of his hit Vinyl Cafe radio show to heart: "We may not be big, but we're small."
For the past 17 years, the Vinyl Cafe variety show on CBC has touched the hearts of more than a million listeners with essays, music and stories about Dave, owner of the world's smallest second-hand record store, and his family, friends and neighbours.
From a fictitious tale of a duck that swallowed Dave's wedding ring to the real-life story of a seven-year-old boy who survived tumbling off Niagara Falls, the 63-year-old radio show host and writer loves storytelling, collecting and weaving little tales over the years to help create the CBC Radio's quilt of stories about Canada.
He believes it was the "accumulation of small moments" that had a life-changing impact on him.
Shy and awkward in his youth in Montreal, he found refuge listening to the radio – and discovered the unexpected little place that was the spark of his success: summer camp.
Before he got a job in 1969 as a camp counsellor, McLean says he was an "utter academic, athletic and social failure," even having to repeat Grade 11.
"In life, I always felt like an underdog—I didn't have a lot of confidence and I had not experienced success," says the award-winning journalist and bestselling author in an interview with Our Kids.
But at camp, he shined for the first time. As a counsellor at YMCA Camp Kanawana in Quebec, the then 20-year-old McLean had his first opportunity to be a mentor to children and stage a variety show. He later worked his way up to assistant director during his five summers there.
"When I got to camp, I found a place where I was accepted by others and I was able to contribute to the greater good," McLean says. "It worked its magic on me. Camp is where I found my confidence."
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