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The Motivators Square Dance Club

This writeup is nominally about the Motivators, the only Advanced level square dance club within the COCDC, but it as much a brief history of our well known club caller, Sam Philipps, who founded the club.

In 1975, while Sam was busy driving trucks around Ohio for a living, he and his first wife Barb decided to take square dance lessons under the tutelage of Bill Spangler. Bill was the caller for a Newark club, the Blooming Buckeyes.

To Sam, square dancing was something that just came naturally, and by late 1977, he had picked up a microphone and successfully given calling a try. Sam was hooked. In order to hone his skills, he taught a class out of his garage. The class was held on Sunday evenings so as not to conflict with a Blooming Buckeyes class that was being offered on Wednesdays. Sam's graduates were funneled to the Blooming Buckeyes.

Concurrently, Sam and Barb continued to grow as dancers. In the early 1980s they took Advanced lessons from Web Mills. The possibilities of Advanced dancing intrigued Sam, and taking a cue from his earlier entrance into calling, Sam offered to instruct his own Advanced class at the Granville Baptist Church. Its graduates became the founding members of the Motivators square dance club.

In the mid-1980s, Harry Reed, the owner of the Lazy "R" campgrounds (now Lazy River), approached Sam about calling at a facility on the site. The campground had an enclosed hall which, although it had a cement floor, was suitable for dancing. Harry had previously approached Web Mills about the endeavor, but Web, already the club caller for the Newark Circulators, was not interested in founding another club. Since the campground was only a mile from Sam's house, Sam accepted Harry's offer, and his second club, the Bunkhouse Reelers, was born.

The Motivators continued to dance at Granville Baptist Church, and the Bunkhouse Reelers at the Lazy "R" campgrounds, until 1992, when the Harmony Hall facility in Buckeye Lake was completed. The Bunkhouse Reelers christened the hall on new year's eve, 1992, and both clubs then moved into the new facility, a structure built explicitly with square dancing in mind. Later on, Sam formed a third club, the Harmony DBD group. All three clubs continue to dance at Harmony Hall today.

The Motivators dance at Harmony Hall on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, and also the 4th Tuesday in the non-summer months. For years, Sam regularly offered Advanced lessons each fall at Harmony Hall on the non-dance-night Tuesdays, but with waning interest in this level of dancing, these classes have largely become a thing of the past. Still, we have enough active members to normally have several squares on the dance floor, with member dancers coming from as far away as Cincinnati to partake of Sam's calling. As the club has aged, we also have our share of "snow birds", who depart when the weather in central Ohio starts to turn cold, but who, like the swallows, return every spring.

If you are an Advanced dancer, we encourage you to check us out. Although we take pride in our avocation, our main purpose is to have healthful and friendly fun.