April 1st, 2023 – Seattle, Washington – Olympic Hot Tub is proud to announce the launch of its 7th Annual “Honoring Heroes” event, which aims to support charities that serve military personnel, police officers, firefighters, and teachers. This year, the beneficiary of the event is Fisher House at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

“JBLM Army Fisher House is a crucial resource for our servicemen and women and their families. It’s an honor for us to support this exceptional cause,” says Don Riling, President of Olympic Hot Tub.

Fisher House offers a nurturing and secure living environment for military service members and their families while they receive medical care at Madigan Army Medical Center. It is a comfortable “home away from home” designed to keep families together during times of medical need.

One testimonial on the organization’s website reads, “They offered food, supplies, and even my family was amazed by the amenities and most importantly the convenience of being in such close proximity to Madigan hospital. Fisher House is doing a tremendous job by assisting us, the families of military personnel while they find themselves in pain, and for us, the parents trying to find a way to stay close to them.”

To support Fisher House, Olympic Hot Tub will donate a portion of every hot tub or swim purchase made between April 1st and April 30^th. The goal is to donate a minimum of $18,000 to help support Fisher House.

For more information visit Olympic Hot Tub’s website at www.olympichottub.com or stop by one of their seven Puget Sound  locations today.

About Olympic Hot Tub:

Olympic Hot Tub has been in business 46 years and has seven retail locations, Seattle, Everett, Issaquah, Lacey, Auburn, Woodinville, and Sequim, as well as a warehouse/service center in Auburn. The company will be opening its 8^th showroom in Tacoma in June 2023. The company supports military service members through ongoing product discounts and has several vets on staff.

The company is credited by The Seattle Times as introducing hot tubbing to the Pacific Northwest. Olympic Hot Tub focuses on health and wellness through water.

About JBLM Fisher House:

Joint Base Lewis-McChord Fisher House provides a comfortable, nurturing, and secure home-like environment to the families of active and veteran service members who are receiving extended medical care at Madigan Army Medical Center.

The house has seven guest rooms with private baths, a huge well-stocked kitchen, and a dining room seating 16-20 people. All amenities from toothpaste to laundry detergent are supplied and meals are often provided by community volunteers. There is no cost to the family to stay at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Fisher House, and all donations go directly toward the operation and maintenance of the house and the well-being of the guests.

November 8th, 2022 – Many of our customers had the good fortune over the years to interact with one of our company’s founders, Blair Osborn. It’s a very sad day for me, as I’m here to share the news with you that Blair passed away over the weekend of October 28^th.

Blair and his wife, Alice Cunningham, started Olympic Hot Tub in 1977. When they started Olympic, the idea of having a hot tub was nowhere near commonplace. As it started to take hold on the west coast, Blair and Alice opened their first shop on Northlake Way on Lake Union in Seattle. They were credited by the Seattle Times for bringing hot tubs to the Northwest. In fact, for many years our company’s tagline was “The Northwest’s Original Hot Tub Company”.

Olympic became one of Hot Spring’s very first dealers in 1982. Over the years our company became a key player in Hot Spring’s success as the brand it is today. So much of what Blair suggested was implemented in the product. Any time anyone needed counsel or thoughts at Hot Spring, they always turned to Blair and Alice. When Hot Spring created its Locksin Thompson Award in 1992, to recognize the single best dealer worldwide, Olympic Hot Tub was the first company honored. And, when they retired from the industry in 2016, Hot Spring created a Ring of Honor Award to recognize their indelible mark on the brand and a lifetime of achievement.

You may not know this, but Blair was a Professor at the University of Washington prior to starting Olympic. With a PhD in engineering, you can bet he was a thinker. Always known within Olympic as the “back of house” guy, he was more than content to let Alice be the face and voice of the company. They had the perfect dynamic relationship. As I said to someone who interviewed me last week for a memorial that was shared with Hot Spring dealers worldwide, he never met a spreadsheet he didn’t like.

I learned more from Blair than I can ever recount. The day I arrived at Olympic in May 1995, I knew that both Blair and Alice were to have a pivotal impact on my life. As the years wore on and I took on more critical roles and responsibility at Olympic, they were both always right there to mentor, guide, sometimes chastise, and always praise what I helped them achieve.

I am blessed to now lead Olympic. It’s not always been easy. I do the best I can as an infallible human being to always do what’s right for our employees and customers. They left a weighty legacy to continue.

In closing, I’d like to share some of what Hot Spring’s key leaders over the past 40 years shared about Blair.

Mike Dunn, recently retired from the role of Executive Vice President: “People looked to them – not just at Watkins but industry-wide – as the ultimate in quality dealers. Blair was brilliant at handling the finance and operations side of the business. We often say that selling hot tubs is the easy part, but the hard part is fulfillment. Blair did that job as well as anyone I ever met. He was a great strategic thinker, and incredibly generous about sharing his knowledge and experience.” 

Steve Hammock, recently retired from the role of President after 40 years, remembered Blair as a brilliant man who could always make you laugh. He noted that Olympic was one of the first dealers to exclusively sell hot tubs – starting off with wooden hot tubs and shortly after becoming an exclusive provider of Hot Spring spas. “He was one of the pioneers who knew this product could stand alone!”

Scott Iverson, who is now Hot Spring’s National Sales Trainer, originally served as Olympic’s regional rep for Hot Spring since the early ‘90’s.  “I remember when I was 24, Blair and Alice took me under their wing. Blair believed this business could be elevated long before anyone else did. He and Alice understood that their people were doing something more than selling hot tubs. He created a team of true believers in the wellness benefits.

Hot Spring’s business was catapulted based on their example. Blair and Alice were so generous at sharing their best practices and the things that were helping. They established a culture of sharing among the dealers. Now there are groups inside our organization that meet regularly and share their successes. I believe they led that movement and made that the norm, not the exception.

It was so unusual – he was so comfortable in his own skin that he was always fully there for anyone he was with. Everyone who knew him was struck by that. This man was a living legend. Both he and Alice changed the trajectory of our industry, and if they hadn’t been there, the business might be very different today.” 

Blair, thank you for everything. Rest in peace, my life-changing friend.