Event Planning from the Inside Out: Embrace Your Experiences and Enhance Your Planning

My Path to Purposeful Event Planning and a Passion for Connection

It was 1982.

I was 12 and – hot off the heels of my oldest sister’s wedding – my mom, dad, middle sister, and I were packing up and making the move from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, Manitoba – one Canadian prairie province to the East.

Everyone in our immediate family had relocated several times but this was the first time I had to uproot one life for another.

My parents were born in small town Saskatchewan. After experiencing a life transformation that ignited their faith and imagination, they had an unquenchable passion to pour hope into communities no matter what the journey would hold.

Their schooling, teaching, ministry, and community building activities took them to Mexico in their early 20’s but they raised up their anchor a few times as they raised a young family.  My oldest sister was born and raised in Kansas, my middle sister in Oklahoma, and then shortly after landing in Saskatoon, I showed up on the scene in 1970.

The scene I was born into was busy and bustling. By now my dad had established himself as an effective pastor and kind shepherd to the congregations he had served with my mom over the years.

To the measure my dad was steady and strong, my mom was a vibrant visionary working to bring ideas to life and people together to make those big ideas happen.

They were yoked together on marriage but my mom would joke that my dad was the work horse, and she was the racehorse.

Somehow this steady and speedy combination worked, and the impact of their contributions showed in everything they put their heads – and hearts – into.

Their years in Saskatoon started with a deep dive into the community and – by the time I came around – my dad was welcoming hundreds of members into the doors of our church with a happy handshake each week.

My mom was just as involved playing piano and making meals but was most passionate about pushing the envelope and creating meaningful connection in the community they called home.

Never one to sit still or settle for the status quo, my mom went to work creating a women’s initiative in the early 70’s. What started as a small in-home woman’s prayer group grew to be a meeting in the Saskatoon Convention Center with almost a thousand women attending each month!

The speed of growth and significance in the community couldn’t be ignored and she started many other related meetings, events, and initiatives. Even a radio show was birthed from the clarity of her vision. 

My first understanding of community was being part of one. Mom carried us girls under one arm and her passion projects under the other. As we got older it was up to us to keep up!

Even though I simply tagged along to sharpen pencils, set tables, or care for the kids of our guests, I felt at home with those in our church and needed within the community my parents built.

Like many of you reading this book, my entry point to event planning was raw and messy – I was young and inexperienced – but it was fun as a wide-eyed pre-teen to add what I could to these experiences that seemed to bring such meaning, healing, and joy to others.

But sometimes success comes with unforeseen shifts. Our move from Saskatoon to Winnipeg in 1982 was a sad one.

My young mind didn’t understand it at the time but a brewing power play had pushed my parents out of their roles and into a hunt for a new home and community where they could once again contribute.

Winnipeg called, and my parents carved the path to our new life.

Soon after our arrival, my middle sister and I entered the rundown-drugstore-turned-church-building on the edge of Winnipeg’s downtown core.

The two of us sat in the front row on one of the donated