Volunteers Kevin and Chaitanya working at last year's family holiday movie event at Co-op Place.--PHOTO COURTESY RANDY FEERE
My name is Derek Schesnuk, and I am the event unit manager at Co-op Place, part of the City of Medicine Hat’s community development department.
I started with the city almost two years ago now, holding the same role with the venues’ previous management company. I have more than 16 years of event management, customer service and logistic management experience, and am proud to be a part of the city’s premier sports and entertainment venue. I am passionate about events and have found that same passion resonates with our volunteers.
Over the past 16 months, I have had the privilege to work alongside some amazing City of Medicine Hat volunteers here at Co-op Place. Whether it be a Medicine Hat Tigers hockey game, graduation ceremony, bull riding event, or dance festival, our volunteers always have a positive attitude, a smile on their face and are willing to go above and beyond to assist in various roles throughout our venue.
Working together with the city’s volunteer program has been an extremely rewarding experience and has provided our venue with a fresh outlook on customer service, community engagement and guest experience. Having many new, fresh sets of eyes, several levels of experience and varying ages of volunteers only enhances our ability to better understand the needs and wants of our event-going patrons. Being able to create synergies between the Esplanade and Co-op Place with our volunteers and events staff allows for all our events, both big and small, to go off without a hitch.
Volunteers will continue to play a vital role in the venue’s future, and as we look forward to the rest of 2022 and beyond, I feel confident the best is yet to come. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our dedicated volunteers for all the hard work they do and their enthusiasm to support events in our community.
If you are interested in joining the City of Medicine Hat volunteer program, please visit medicinehatvolunteers.ca.
