About Helena
A graduate of Whitworth University, Helena has a double major in Recreation Administration and Fine Arts. She was an assistant teacher on and off for 15 years and served as a City of Kent Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Program Coordinator from August, 1990 to July, 2020.
In addition to being a stay-at-home mom when her children were born, she also helped create Rap Outreach, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit ministry. Rap Sessions with music and speakers were held before games in a major-league ball park, personally hosted by professional major-league baseball players.
Since 1974, Helena has been married to Dave Reynolds, a college basketball and baseball player who dumped her headfirst into a campus snow bank on their very first encounter. After graduation, he became a secondary school teacher and coach. Dave retired from coaching football, basketball, and baseball, and teaching PE, Health, First Aid, and Social Studies after 32 years in 2006. He launched a second adventure as a professional pitching instructor and a third career as a sales rep with ADT Securities until 2021. He served as a mall security agent from 2022 to 2025. He now enjoys family, reading, and fishing.
After retiring in the summer of 2020, Helena refired to help teach her special-needs grandsons during the pandemic in the fall. She helped care for her mother in Hospice from the spring of 2021 until she passed away at age 92 in January, 2022.
After writing her immigrant family’s life stories over the past 40+ years, Helena recently completed a life stories book for a friend, whose late husband was a great-great-grandson of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, and a grandson of global financier J. P. Morgan. Entitled Destined to Be a Hamilton, True Life Stories of Mary Anne Hamilton, the book is a unique “memoir plus” because it includes 90 facts about Hamilton’s life and his little-known contributions to our nation’s foundation. Also included are 70 images, most in color, and Quick Response (QR) Codes to her online presentations and resources.
The eBook version was launched on January 1, 2024 and became a #1 Amazon Bestseller (in two categories) and a #1 Amazon Hot New Release (in five categories). The eBook, paperback and hardcover versions were once available on Amazon.com but have been unpublished temporarily. An expanded edition, including an Epilogue and Discussion Questions is being republished by Sunbury Press. For details and current reviews, see the link posted on the page entitled OUR BOOK: Destined to Be a Hamilton.
See the Presentations* tab above for details of Helena’s workshop topics, including “Hamilton, the Man, the Musical, and the Maestro who Made It” and “Leave A Legacy of Love” as well as other workshops which have been presented at local, regional and national events.
These venues include:
- The National Recreation and Parks Association Conference
- The Washington Recreation and Parks Association Conference
- The Washington State Association of Senior Centers Conference
- The City of Kent 50 Plus Program
- Numerous Washington Libraries, Community Centers, and Retirement Residences
- Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Chapters
- Curves Gym in Federal Way, WA
Dave and Helena enjoy their family, their church, Dave’s fishing boat and Helena’s writing endeavors.
MISSION STATEMENT
Helena Reynolds’ life-long mission is to make a positive impact graciously…..one smile at a time.
After giving a January 6, 2018 Hamilton workshop described by many as ‘inspiring,’ Helena launched an adventure to fulfill her life-long mission statement: She has created multi-media presentations* that she hopes will inspire people of all ages to enhance their lives by telling their life stories and by launching an often-illusive End-of-Life Family discussion.
*Sessions offered via Zoom or in-person.
