'It's home': Sask. tourism award winner is passionate about Grasslands National Park

The winner of a Saskatchewan tourism award wants to see people visit the Grasslands National Park — and come back for another round.

"My goal is that when people come that they're welcome and they're going to have a good time … and they'll come back again," said Brenda Peterson.

The interpretive co-ordinator officer at Grasslands National Park has been named the recipient of the Tourism Saskatchewan Employee of the Year Award.

Peterson, who has been working at the Grasslands National Park since 2011, says she's humbled by the award.

"It was just fantastic," she said. "What an honour."

Peterson began working at Grasslands — about 240 kilometres southwest of Regina — after retiring from teaching, and now helps organize a variety of activities at the park.

But the park is also close to her heart, she said, "because it's home."

She was born and raised in the area — her grandfather had land near the visitor centre, and her father and uncle ranched nearby.

"You have that attachment to the land. I just love the peace and the quiet," she said.

Now working at the park, "every day's a new day," she said. "It changes all the time and it's always something new, exciting."

'A very rewarding job'

The work she does is part of a team effort, Peterson said, and she particularly enjoys engaging with the visitors.

"It's the people that come to the park that make it so exciting, because it's that sharing and seeing the light in their eyes," she said. "It's a very rewarding job."

There's plenty for those visitors to do in the area, she says, including interpretive hikes, self-guided hikes, hoedowns and the Fossil Fever program, which lets visitors join paleontologists from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for a dig.

One of the tours Peterson guides is the Footprints In Time tour.

"It covers all the footprints that have been on the land — like, we talk about the Indigenous people. We talk about the dinosaurs, of course. We talk about the ranchers and farmers, the homesteaders," she said.

I share my love of the land. And if I can convince one person that the Grasslands is so special, then I did my job for the day.- Brenda Peterson

Peterson also has a few favourite animals in the park.

"We have this sage grouse and we have the leopard frog. And my favourite is the little brown myotis bat. These little bats are so cute," she said.

"Sometimes [bats are] under the bridge, sometimes in the trees, and sometimes even behind the door of the summer kitchen," Peterson said with a laugh.

"We warn people and give them the opportunity to experience that."

Peterson said she thinks she was nominated for the Tourism Saskatchewan award because she's passionate about the park.

"I think it's because I share my love of the land. And if I can convince one person that the Grasslands is so special, then I did my job for the day."