New St. Marys events coordinator a familiar face for locals

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Those seeking guidance from the Town of St. Marys in organizing events may recognize the town’s new events coordinator.

Though she’s new to this part-time role, Morgan Easton, who lives in Thorndale and grew up in London, is no stranger to the Town of St. Marys, having worked in a number of capacities both for the town and for other local organizations over the past three years.

“I started working for the town three years ago, going into my fourth year (at Fanshawe College),” Easton said. “I started actually working in the snack booth at the hockey arena and then at guest services for a bit and, two summers ago, I was the tourism summer student, so I worked under Alanna (Blowes), who was the last events coordinator for the town.

“So, I got to learn a lot from doing that and I’m just excited to be back.”

Having just graduated from the business-marketing co-op program at Fanshawe, Easton now works with St. Marys tourism and economic-development manager Kelly Deeks-Johnson coordinating municipal and other events and she also manages the town’s Instagram. Outside of that work, she also manages social media for the St. Marys Lincolns and she’s looking to help local businesses manage their social media as well.

“I just love the small-town feel,” she said. “I really liked working at the events here (over the past three years) because there’s so many different ones. I’ve learned a lot from the different events here; we have the Stonetown Heritage Festival, we do Canada Day, we have Spooktacular St. Marys coming up in a few weeks and then we’re also planning for Remembrance Day and Winter Lights right now as well.”

As events coordinator, Easton’s job entails planning events down to the tiniest of details with organizations like the St. Marys BIA and local service clubs, soliciting sponsorships from local businesses, and promoting those events out in the community and on social media.

Easton also helps those in the community looking to plan events navigate the process they need to follow in order to coordinate space rentals, organize for food trucks and get approval from the necessary authorities like council and the Stratford Police Service. Details on the town’s event-approval process can be found at www.discoverstmarys.ca/en/plan-your-stay/plan-your-event.aspx.

“We were pleasantly surprised, to be honest, over the amount of applicants we got for the (events coordinator) role,” Deeks-Johnson said. “We did get a lot, but Morgan has been in the role here somewhat before through the summer internship with Fanshawe. She did work with Alanna for a short time, which was great because Alanna’s skills were exemplary when it came to planning events. To be learning from that was a great opportunity.

“Morgan really works well in our culture, with out staff. She’s respectful, she’s respected by people here, we all enjoy working with her. She’s organized, dedicated, really eager and she has exemplary social-media skills, which will really help elevate our events portfolio.”

For help planning events in St. Marys, don’t hesitate to reach out to Easton at measton@town.stmarys.on.ca.