Cheryl Mackenzie describes her personality as being loud and proud, but her co-volunteers from St. Albert's 150th anniversary picnic sub-committee see her differently.
"She's an extremely gracious volunteer and gracious is the only word I can think of to describe her," said Linda Locicero, who is currently volunteering with Mackenzie on the Spirit of St. Albert committee.
In the final hours of St. Albert's 150th anniversary celebration picnic, an exhausted Mackenzie vowed that she would never again work on such a project.
Last year Mackenzie spent thousands of hours as project co-ordinator for the picnic. In the two weeks prior to the Aug. 28 event, she used her own holidays to help with the event organization.
"And at the same time, she was employed at a hard-core job, but she still made time. She spent two weeks in Bahrain with her job, and on the plane she was doing picnic work," said Locicero, who at the time was the office manager and overall co-ordinator for the 150th anniversary celebrations.
On picnic day Mackenzie went from site to site making sure the event went smoothly. By 6 p.m., as she was driving a golf-cart along the Red Willow Trail system to pick up flags, she said she'd had enough.
"Can you believe it? People want us to do this again," she said then. "Someone else will have to do it, because I can't."
Two days later, a phone call from Mayor Nolan Crouse changed her mind.
"The mayor told me that he'd been stopped as he drove home and someone who didn't even know him said, 'This is what St. Albert's all about.' I realized I shared that vision," Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie talked to Locicero and the Spirit of St. Albert was launched to carry on with the 150th anniversary legacy projects.
Not a record breaker
Kent La Rose, who served on the 150th anniversary committee, recruited Mackenzie to help on the picnic but the two at times found themselves on opposite sides.
La Rose's dream was to have the Guinness World Records biggest picnic. His scheme was big, bold and dramatic but Mackenzie realized it was unwieldy.
Mackenzie talked to La Rose and then, armed with clear facts and figures and a new plan, she went before the larger committee to shoot down the idea for a record-breaking picnic. Most of the committee members held fast to the old idea of a record breaker, and they fired questions and arguments at Mackenzie. She listened to them carefully, but held her ground and before the meeting was finished, swayed the committee members to take her side.
"It was an emotional argument because I was taking their baby away. But I explained the information that I based my decision upon," said Mackenzie, adding that she was able to make a stand because of the research she had prepared.
"If I hurt someone, I'll deal with that. I don't have a lot of relationships, so the ones I have are important to me. But if they disagree, so they disagree. I don't come to positions lightly. I take a stand because I know it's right and I own it and I have gathered facts. In the end our job together is to make an informed decision," she explained later.
She offered St. Albert's biggest picnic as an alternative suggestion and she presented her argument along with the numbers and calculations that had led her to that choice.
"I was bitterly disappointed," La Rose recalled. "But it took courage for her to stand up and say why it wouldn't work. In the end, she was right … She stood up for her convictions even though she got ambushed by the committee members."
Learned early
Mackenzie was born in 1966 in Halifax and attended school in Truro, N.S.
She credits her father for teaching her about the need for volunteering and she thanks her high school band teacher for teaching her about commitment and for fostering her own perfectionism.
"Mr. Ron McKay, who was my band teacher, was incredibly focused. He pushed us to be the best but he didn't expect more of us than we could do. Those are forming moments in life," Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie stayed in the band even though she doesn't see herself as being musical.
"I am not artistic or musical, I'm mathematical," she said. "I told Mr. McKay, 'If you want someone to create feeling or movement, that's not me.' I played trumpet, but I was not a good trumpet player. I was the numbers girl with the business plan."
Mackenzie earned a business degree from Mount St. Vincent University and during her years there, served as president of the student council. She honed her lobbying and negotiating skills during national debates with other school presidents about a number of issues ranging from abortion to student loans and college fees.
"We had a labour strike at our university and had to meet with the minister of labour to settle it," she recalled.
Alberta bound
Mackenzie moved to Alberta in the 1990s to follow up on an Internet romance and to find work.
"The '90s were not friendly to Maritimers. We had whole towns that turned into ghost towns because there was no industry," she said, adding that her first job in 1997 was in Calgary, when she crossed the picket lines at a Safeway store.
"I worked as a scab. I crossed the picket line. It was a conscious decision. The clerks wanted $20 an hour for unskilled labour. I'd been working as a telemarketer, with a business degree, for half that. I started at $14 an hour," she said.
The Internet beau is long gone, though ending that relationship was a tough decision because together they had a lot of fun racing cars with a club called the Alberta Solo Association.
"I raced a Honda hatchback and I loved the adrenalin rush. You go like crazy and gun it. It was a social group that filled my life for a time," she said.
For the past several years she has dated Marty Vincent from Fort McMurray. She volunteers for countless organizations and groups and is currently employed as the business and financial operations manager for a company called TTG Systems.
For holidays, when she isn't volunteering to put on an event for thousands of people, she likes to go camping and often simply sits and reads.
But her passion is St. Albert. She's taken to this city in a way she never thought was possible because she is a Maritimer by birth and she works and previously did all her playing and volunteering in Edmonton.
"The picnic changed me. I learned how much the city I live in has to offer and I want all of St. Albert to realize that there is more here than the Red Willow trails. There are so many ways for people to get involved here. We need things for youth. We need to get the kids engaged with their community," she said and as she spoke, she began to churn the ideas out and made it clear that she has a plan, and as usual, she'll see it through.
"I'm getting involved because I love St. Albert," Mackenzie said, "and I want everyone else to love it too."
What's your favourite book?
"The Harry Potter series. I read this series to some children at a local school and I saw how it turned them on to reading. For my personal reading, I would say the Stieg Larsson series about the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the Stephenie Meyer Twilight series."
Favourite movie?
"I watch everything. I like the new Sherlock Holmes stuff."
Favourite vacation place?
"Alaska. I love Anchorage. I hate hot climates. I had to go to the desert and I hated it. I spent as much time as I could inside."
If you were a tree or an animal, what would you be?
"A cat because cats are independent and don't have a care in the world."
If you could go back and change one thing in your life, what would it be?
"I wouldn't. I live life without regret and I live purposely. If it doesn't work, I purposely move on."
If you could change one thing about St. Albert, what would it be?
"I would have community halls in every neighbourhood to help the community engage and connect. I would also make better use of Kingswood Park. My dream would be to use it more. We could have a mini Hawrelak Park. It would not be cheap. It could cost $3 or $4 million but there could be capital investment. It could be a natural gathering place for the arts in St. Albert."
Tell us about your first kiss.
"Ssh! My mother might hear. It was under a tree at the provincial exhibition in Nova Scotia."
