New Yorkton Ex. GM excited when events bring community together

YORKTON — It's been a busy start for the new general manager of the Yorkton Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition Association Ltd.

Cheyenne Quam started in the job May 12, just a few weeks before the Thunder in the Parkland truck and tractor pull event in late May. Two weeks later was the summer fair.

"It's been a bit of a whirlwind, but I'm trying to learn as fast as I can, and now we're just looking forward to Harvest Showdown," said Quam in an interview with Yorkton This Week and SaskToday.

The Harvest Showdown is slated for Nov. 5-8.

The two marquee events that she's been part of have been great, she said. The community showed up for both, and she is pleased Yorkton has a great atmosphere in which people want to come out, have fun, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy the community.

"I'm very pleased with just how well everything went," she said. "There's always going to be hiccups, but nothing you can't deal with. You just pivot. I think both events were planned very well by the outgoing GM, and the execution couldn't have been better."

Quam was working at an office job in Regina when she accepted the job as the Yorkton Exhibition's GM, but she has a background with horses. Her father was a horse trainer and her mother ran the family business.

"It was a natural progression for me to join this association and bring to life a lot of the things that I did growing up, and see some new stuff," said Quam.

When she was growing up, her parents were involved with cutting horse shows. She was involved in barrel racing and cowboy-mounted shooting.

"I travelled to the States a lot to do that, because you can't do the handgun stuff in Canada if you're underage. So I would travel down to the States to do it there with my parents, and then when I got older, I did do it in Canada for a little while before I left for university," she recalled.

Quam said the equine events that she grew up in are about bringing people together, having fun, enjoying company and being in a community. She compares it to the events organized by the Yorkton exhibition.

"I always loved that part of it, going to shows and meeting new people," she said.

Her husband Mathew Jendrasheske is originally from Yorkton and started working with his father.

Yorkton boasts an older exhibition association that she said has done so many great things for the community over the years through a variety of events.

"I have that connection to the agricultural side of it, but then there's also the added factor of just wanting to support something that is good for economic development. It's good for community involvement and bringing people together and that family fun."

Quam said she is "blown away" by the hospitality of the Yorkton community. Everywhere she goes, people she talks to know her in-laws or other members of her family.

"Everyone's been so fantastic. This is a very welcoming community, and I'm so excited to be joining this community in a role where I get to meet people and make those connections and put down roots."

The other staff members and the board of directors at the Yorkton exhibition have been great to work with as well, she said.