ESTEVAN - Jacquelyn Massey-Rounds has joined the City of Estevan team as the new marketing manager.
She moved to Estevan from southwestern Ontario last month and started the new job on Oct. 18, and so far, her experience in the Energy City has been nothing but positive.
"It's been really great. Everybody here is really friendly and super helpful. It's been a lot easier to adjust than I thought it might be," said Massey-Rounds in an interview with the Mercury.
With Christmas around the corner, Massey-Rounds had to quickly jump into many tasks the city always has before the holiday season.
"There's quite a bit to do marketing-wise, so I'm spending part of my day trying to learn the position and part of my day trying to keep up," Massey-Rounds said.
One of her first big projects is downtown revitalization, but there are several other plans and activities the city aims at developing for the residents in the near future.
"We've got a bunch of stuff coming out for Christmas, and we're planning for some new things in the new year to try to get the community out a little bit more. And I have some plans to work with other people in the community on things. And then a part of my job is working with different departments, so it's a little bit of balancing on me learning all the different departments at the same time," Massey-Rounds said.
"And the big thing is I'm working on the downtown revitalization project that's coming up. We've had people that are working on that, they were here just last week, and we'll be doing a community engagement in a couple of weeks. So yeah, that's really exciting."
Massey-Rounds has extensive and diverse experience in marketing. She had been a marketing manager for the Blyth Festival Theatre, as well as for a municipality. She also has had and has her own business in marketing consultation and graphic design.
Massey-Rounds, her husband and their three children drove to Estevan from Ontario about a week and a half before she started the position. With the U.S. border being closed at the time, the trip took about 30 hours but allowed the family to explore northern Ontario a bit.
They haven’t spent too much time in Estevan, but they already found some benefits of living in a community the size of Estevan in Saskatchewan as compared to Ontario. While the population is denser there and there are more cities in close proximity, it doesn't necessarily serve the needs of a family with children in the best way.
"Ontario is different, there's less space between communities, and it's a lot shorter distance to drive into the next city. But then you also have the downside – they expect you to drive into the city for things. The example I keep giving is my daughter wants to do gymnastics. At home, we would have to drive 40 to 50 minutes to take her to gymnastics, often in Ontario snow in the wintertime, so you have the potential of her not making it to about half of her classes. Whereas here there are community groups, such as gymnastics and taekwondo, where families can appreciate having it a lot closer. We're really looking forward to that with three kids," Massey-Rounds said.
She added that her hobby, which also was a part of her business, is photography. While she is here, she said she is taking a little bit of a break from the business side of photography and isn't doing actual sessions for some time, which opens room for new opportunities.
"Before I go back to doing more photography professionally, I have the benefit for the next little while of being able to dabble more from the hobby perspective, capturing landscapes side of it as opposed to people. I'm excited about that."
Massey-Rounds said Estevan has been very welcoming as they've been exploring the community, which has been really helpful, and they look forward to becoming a part of the community.
"My family and I are really excited to be here. And we're already enjoying everything that the city has to offer. And we're really excited to be part of the city as it grows and changes," Massey-Rounds said.
