Dave Pleysier: The Forgotten Man of SCEA

Dave Pleysier is not one to draw attention to himself.

Despite his rugged good looks (many Southern Hills students mistake him for George Clooney on their Bedfordale campus) and disarming smile, Mr Pleysier shuns the limelight and defers all accolades of praise that come his way.

However, there is much to applaud about Dave apart from his Hollywood looks.

Anyone who has scaled Southern Hills’ abseiling tower may not be aware that many years ago, Dave approached Western Power about moving one of their unused steel towers, piece by piece, to be used by the school for abseiling and high ropes exercises.  This 50-metre high structure can be seen for miles around and comprises more than 20,000 pieces of kit that need to be put together in a particular way. For those of us who cringe at the sight of an IKEA flat-pack at this time of year, imagine the work that goes into taking one of these towers apart and then putting them back together again!

I don’t imagine too many people were keen to give up so much time to help out on a project this big.

“Oh well,” says Dave, “I had plenty of peace and quiet. And there were some excellent people that helped put it together. Team effort.”

You don’t even get full sentences with Dave. This man lets his actions do the talking. A little more than twenty years ago, David signed up for the SCEA team at Swan Christian College and moved down to Southern Hills where he has become the ‘go-to-guy’ for all things Outdoor Education, Rite Journey and the ever-popular Emergency Service Cadets program.  Principal Paul Beacham paid tribute to David and the positive impact he has had for Southern Hills in a recent speech:

“David gives generously of his time, managing many of our camps, student leadership and alumni events, and has also just been awarded recognition for 20 years of service as a Cadet leader. We value him immensely and are grateful for all his hard work.  He is a man who has had a profound impact on the students he teaches.”

In a previous article celebrating the 2020 President’s Reception (www.scea.wa.edu.au/scea-news/scea-celebrates-longserving-staff), we omitted David Pleysier’s name from the Honours List.

Thankfully, a keen eye spotted it late on a Sunday night while catching up on her regular SCEA news feed and we have now rectified the problem.

When contacted regarding the glaring error in SCEA News, Dave Pleysier was as gentlemanly as ever:

“All good.”

How about we write a story about how great you have been for SCEA for the past twenty years to make up for this mistake?

“It’s OK. I’m fine. Happy to be a part of a great team down here at Southern Hills. No need to make a fuss.”

So, no story with a picture of you from twenty years ago when you started at SCEA? Nothing about the high ropes course you built? How you’ve been a big part of Southern Hills for today’s generation of young people? “Definitely not.”

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