At the heart of the business

Ambassatours president Dennis Campbell's driving force brings smiles to small faces

by Bill Carr
The Daily News, Halifax, Nova Scotia
February 3, 2008

Dennis Campbell created and is president of Ambassatours. For most Maritimers and many beyond, the familiar kilts and the smiling man at the helm of the company are common sights. How he created the company is the stuff of legend and oft written about.

The questions I was curious about were "why?" and "why this way?" and "what lies at the heart of this successful business?"

Bill: Dennis,what is at the heart of this business for you, as a young man in a big business?

Dennis: The heart has changed. It isn't today what it started to be. In reality, it started in ignorance. I mean, truly ... if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't be here!

He laughs a big contagious laugh.

I guess ignorance is bliss as they say ... I think the other part of it, and I wish it weren't true, but I think it was partly some ego. The idea that I want to be the "boss," I want to own my own company and all the "grandeur" that went with that - again, little did I know.

Today, what it very much is that gets my mojo going is the community stuff - the giving back. That giving back happens in many forms, but it starts internally.

First and foremost this is a good place to work. It's a happy place. That's not B.S. You go around and you talk to people, they like coming to work here. Sure we slip at times, but we are operating at such a highly effective level that when we slip, it is always amazing to me at how much easier it is to get back. When SARS hit and we let six full-time, permanent, good people go - in my opinion, the sky was falling and it was sad that day. But the next day, the team came in, rallied and said, "We're going to make this happen." And I thought, "Oh my God ... in the old days, this would have taken years, and consultants and team-builders, just to recover."

And the other part of "why" is seeing the good we can do to help people outside, in the community. That is some pretty cool stuff. I can say to my kids, "Look, here's where we're helping fulfill the dreams of sick children and making them feel like rock stars. And now they're coming in and being a part of that. What can be better?

Bill: What are you doing for the kids?

Dennis: It's called Big Buses for Little Kids. It started with me and a good friend of mine having lunch on a Friday afternoon at the Little Fish, and I said, "How was your day?" and he said, "It was one of the best days I ever had, because I helped a little seven-year-old girl who has a life-threatening disease, and I'm going to introduce her to Hilary Duff tonight." That was the first part of the wish.

The second part was she wanted to go to Disney World and dress up as a princess and be in the castle with all the other princesses.

And he's telling me this, and he and I are both fathers of seven-year-old girls, and the two of us are blubbering idiots, and we're crying in our beer - and we don't like watered-down beer.

Again the laugh, as memory causes the emotion to rise.

Dennis: And I thought, "I've got to be a part of this." So I called Children's Wish and I said, " I'd like to pick up this little girl and her family in her own private bus. Would there be any value in this?" They ran it past Zoe's mom and she thought it was wonderful. And she couldn't contain herself, and she told Zoe, who was just as excited.

Zoe Guimond was the IWK Miracle Child. She was an angel with pink hair who touched all of us involved with the IWK so deeply that words wouldn't do her justice.

Dennis: The story is that I was going to drive the bus, but got storm-stayed on P.E.I. So the driver that picked her up on a stormy, stormy morning a few years ago now wrote me an e-mail later that day that ... well ... I was a mess.

He thanked me for the honour of fulfilling part of little Zoe's wish and he told me how he knew he had to be strong ... and he said he was strong, but when he saw her being wheeled out of the I.W.K. at 6 a.m., there was her and her mom and dad and family and her nurse, and they got her on board and carried her to the back of the bus ... it wasn't easy to keep it together. He said, "Then I got her checked into the airport and was strong the whole way and I thought, 'There. I've done my thing,' and I started rolling back into the city in the big empty bus. And it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I pulled over to the side of the road because I was bawling like a baby."

And Bill, he then thanked me for the honour and I thought, "We're on to something magical here." And he wanted his wages for that day donated to the Children's Wish and I called him and said, "I've got a huge favour to ask you. Would you ever let me read this note out at the next driver's meeting?" He said, "Yes." And I thought, "There's a real man."

So when I read it out, there was silence. There was no reaction. No nodding. No nothing. And I thought, "You guys don't want to hear what I'm saying."

But I didn't care - too bad about them - I'm reading it anyway. When I finished I said, "There's a sign-up sheet at the back of the room. It's on your honour. Go for it if you wish."

Every single driver - the entire room - signed up. And I was totally shocked.

I then presented it at a meeting of bus operators down in the U.S. - you know, big burly bus operators. It won the best-idea section of this conference, but again I got no reaction. And I thought I was dying up there.

That night the guys were all saying, "We want to do this. How do we do this?" And I said, "I'm shocked. I got no reaction from you guys. No nodding, no nothing!"

One guy from Nashville said, "Damn it Campbell! You almost had us all in tears. We didn't dare say anything."

So I called up the head of Grey Line worldwide and I said, "Brad, I want to present this at the annual meeting. I think we can take this global. We can take what we are doing for 60 or 70 kids a year and make it thousands of kids around the world." And he said,"Let's do it!"

So we did it and now it's happening. It's called Big Buses for Little Kids.

Bill: So from what you're saying ... it's not about money.

Dennis: I won't deny the fact money is a part of it. I can say that and not feel bad about it, because we went through the time of no money, and I financed this business at one point on my Canadian Tire credit card. Literally! Thank God for Canadian Tire.

Now we get a decent return on our investment, and we're very proud of that. We're still not taking much out of the business; we're investing it back because I've been through enough rainy days to know they're ahead. There are peaks and valleys, and we have valleys coming. We have to weather those storms. So money is important, but it's far from the be-all and end-all.

I loved an article I read a while ago about the pursuit of happiness, and when they interviewed a large group of wise, elderly people up to age 106, the almost unanimous secret that gave true meaning to their lives was helping others. One guy said, "I notice my B.M.W. doesn't come to visit me in the old folks home."

So money is there, off to the side, and it's important to get a return on investment, but it's not anywhere near as important as the real satisfaction in life, and that is a happy place to be and create.

I almost feel guilty from the good I get back from the good we do and then I figure - if from good stuff comes good stuff - bring it on!

Bring it on indeed, or in Dennis's case ... in deeds.

For more on Dennis and Big Buses for Little Kids look under the index at www.ambassatours.com and bring a Kleenex.

Bill Carr lives in Halifax, where he often thinks of that little princess with the pink hair and the magic bus ride she took.