The best advice Dani Zibell-Wolfe said she ever received was from her father.

"Dad used to tell me, 'Just smile, then everybody is going to wonder what you are up to,'" Zibell-Wolfe said.

When she is not smiling on the outside, she reminds herself of those words and thinks "OK, you can get through this." But smiling and laughing seemed to come easy to Zibell-Wolfe as she so fondly spoke to The Press about her late father, her family and her love of volunteering in the community.

Zibell-Wolfe, of Post Falls, is a hard-working woman who strives to stay focused, although she admits to being a romantic at heart. Her parents — both her mother who is now 82 and her father who died a few years ago — were "very hardworking" people who taught their daughter the value of hard work. It’s a value she hopes to pass on, not only to her friends and family but to the "younger generation."

"I think we have a responsibility, our generation, to try to be that role model and to show people, especially the young adults that this gets you further in life — being a good person and a good role model for others," she said.

She enjoys having people around her — family and friends — but even her best friend since high school would say she "does not suffer fools."

"I just don't like wasting my time on things that don't matter," Zibell-Wolfe said, adding if it matters to someone then it is important, but when something is a complete waste of time, it's simply not worth her time.

While she doesn't have a favorite book, one of her favorite hobbies is reading. She also loves gardening and makes "a killer batch of caramels." Her grandson's favorite, though, is her banana bread that she makes using a 50-year-old recipe.

Zibell-Wolfe began volunteering with Ironman Coeur d'Alene 10 years ago and has worked with the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce nearly as long. She has been the volunteer director for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, overseeing the thousands of volunteers each year, for three years.

Before moving to Kootenai County and meeting her husband, a Post Falls city councilman, Zibell-Wolfe was a single parent for 17 years in Chewelah. Her career as a travel agent for AAA took her to places around the world, some of her favorites being Mexico, Morocco and Peru where she had the "run of the ruins" at Machu Picchu and she climbed Huaynu Picchu, which she said is a 1,000-foot vertical hike on a peak behind Machu Picchu. She said it is those kind of experiences that are never forgotten.

Zibell-Wolfe said she still has a "huge" love of travel and encourages her children and others to travel.

"You learn so much from other people and other cultures," she said. "That doesn't mean you have to like it, but you can learn so much from other people and from history, about the history of other countries."

She also travels a lot within the United States for Ironman, including Lake Placid — "a great place to visit" — Maryland, California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and several others states.

Of all the places she has traveled, Zibell-Wolfe said she loves North Idaho the best. She said nothing compares to coming home. Boating, biking, hiking, snowshoeing — there is always something to do, she said. And when asked what quality she admires most in others, her love and passion for the community was apparent in her answer.

"One thing that I really love about this community is the heart," she said. "And when I see people giving back to the community in so many ways, that is a quality that I think makes not only a great person, but you put a community together like that and what a wonderful place to live."

• • •

Do you do any volunteer work besides Ironman?

I volunteer for the Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County. I was the volunteer of the year in 2014. One of my favorite things is I am also a Toastmaster. I have worked for the Youth of the Year Program for the last three years now, where I meet with teens who are going through that program once a week starting in September through the culmination, and then the interview and contest part of that in January — helping them with their essays, helping them with their public speaking, with their appearance; all aspects of that Youth of the Year program. We talk about and write about a lot of different stuff, but we have some amazing youth in the community and some of these kids have overcome some incredible obstacles to be the kind of person that is able to give back now to the community, and to be a sustaining member of society when it didn't necessarily start out like that for them.

What is a Toastmaster?

I belong to the Post Falls Toastmasters Club, since 2009. Toastmasters is an international organization. As a member we work and practice communication and leadership skills. As a club we meet weekly, practicing all of the skills that go along with public speaking, communication, listening and leadership. It sounds pretty technical, but we have a lot of fun and I have found it to be invigorating. Not only do we learn by doing — giving speeches and impromptu speaking — but we constantly learn from each other.

I am currently working on my DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster), the highest award level within Toastmasters, which I hope to achieve by the beginning of the year. I have given over 50 speeches, served in every officer capacity, and recruited and mentored many new members. I was recently recognized with an Achievement Award for bringing new members to Toastmasters. I have presented a number of workshops on public speaking and personal help workshops, and served as a guest speaker telling inspiring stories — both my own and other entertaining stories. I mentioned that I mentored the high school kids involved in the Youth of the Year Program for the Boys and Girls Club; this stems from my Toastmastering skills and experiences.

In general, why do you volunteer?

I think it takes a village to raise a child, and our children are our future. I really believe that through volunteering we not only teach those children, but we feel good about ourselves being able to give back to our community, and we make it the kind of community that we want to live in. We don't always get paid for every little thing we do, and I think that is something that has been missed by some of our younger generation. It doesn't make them bad in any way, but I think it's been missed. And that's why I think volunteering is so good, but I think we are seeing more of a push for that younger generation now to say, "I think we need to take a step back and step in there now." ... I just love seeing the volunteers come out. It's an incredible feeling to know that we have such a supportive community for something like Ironman, but there is also other events out there that are looking for volunteers, so it's not just about Ironman, but it's the community as a whole. And I mentioned earlier about giving back to this community and I think that's so often how we do it is through volunteering. It doesn't have to be paying money — It doesn't have to be giving up something other than a little bit of time.

It must be pretty amazing to see some of the kids you work with grow through that community involvement?

Yes. One of the young ladies that I've worked with now for three years on the Youth of the Year program is now interning with me at Ironman this year. She was a very shy and quiet young lady and she is still a quiet and shy young lady, but you can just see her begin to blossom.

How did you get started volunteering with Ironman?

This is a great story. I met my husband in 2005, and it wasn't long after I met him he said he was going to go volunteer for the day, and I was not very happy that he was going to spend a whole weekend away and I wasn't invited. So then the next year he said he was going to do it again, and I said, "What is this thing that you are doing?" So in 2006, he, at the time, was the captain of the men's change tent. Well, he says "You can't volunteer for me because you can't be in the men's change tent." So finally, in 2006, I said, "Well if there is a men's change tent, is there a women's change tent?" So I started volunteering in 2006, and it was the following January when I went to work for the Coeur d'Alene Chamber as the (vice president) of tourism. So then I became one of the contacts within the Chamber for Ironman. I got to know the people and it was a great opportunity for me to learn about multisports, which I didn't really know a lot about then, but I do now.

You have been the volunteer director for Ironman for three years, what does that entail?

Well it started out with one race (per year), now there is two races. I look at my job as not only going out and recruiting volunteers. For the full distance race we recruit about 3,800 to 4,000 volunteers is our target, and there is no way possible that I can recruit individual volunteers one at a time. My goal is to go out and find people that have groups that have as much of a passion for Ironman as I do, and in turn then they help me recruit volunteers. I also look at myself as somebody in the community that needs to promote Ironman from the aspect of it's great for the community. It brings our community together. Promoting volunteerism in the community through Ironman, I think, is just a great fit with the things that I've always not only enjoyed doing in life, but what I believe in life. So to have a job that I really believe in and I can feel good about what I'm doing, bringing not only the race to town but the volunteers. My job is to make sure that every aid station is manned and every corner has a person on it, not only to help put the race on, but to support the athletes, which in turn makes our community look like we're the best one in the world. And we do hear that so often about how wonderful our volunteers are.

If you could pick one favorite thing about being an Ironman volunteer, what would it be?

I would say it has to be the interaction with the athletes. That is bar none the best. Ironman has a host program where we ask people to open up their homes for pro athletes and we've had several pro athletes stay with us as well. So not only on the course, but just being able to help people — it always feels good to be able to help somebody and they are so thankful that you're there, sometimes just to hand them a glass of water, but sometimes to help them through those tough stretches that they're really having to dig deep to finish the race. I think it makes the volunteer — me too — feel so good about being able to really help somebody, and they are so thankful for it. The pros are so thankful too. We've never had a bad experience.

In all your years of volunteering, is there a specific story or moment that really stands out to you?

A few years ago, before I was working at the Chamber and before I was the volunteer director, the volunteer director at the time said, "Hey, I've got an athlete coming from Spain and he doesn't speak any English. You go to Mexico, don't you speak Spanish?" I said, "Dos mas cerveza por favor?" We ended up hosting him that year and he ended up winning the race — and he left his trophy. It's an 18-pound brass M-dot, the (Ironman) M with the dot. He didn't want to pack it home, so he left it with us and we have never quite decided what to do with it, so it still sits there. And somebody said, "Where did you get that?" and we always say, "Oh, Alan (my husband) won that." But it was a wonderful experience, and just having that one-on-one with the athletes is really cool ... Francisco Pantano is who he was, and trying to communicate with him, if you can imagine three people sitting at a bar, everybody with a computer has the translator up and that's how we communicated when it was serious communication and we really needed to get something across.

If you could say anything to the athletes or volunteers on race day, what would it be?

I want them all to have a great day. If the athletes are having a good day, then the volunteers and having a good day, the spectators and family are having a great day — it's a great day.