David and Melissa Lorenson, volunteers with the Red Deer Royals

By Volunteer Central

volunteer central

Volunteer(s) of the Month: David and Melissa Lorenson

Feb 9, 2020 | 2:13 PM

Beloved is a good performance. But what is a movie without extras? How can a play proceed without the make-up artists? It takes work outside of the limelight for entertainment to be what it is. There must be people to keep the band marching.

In this case, David and Melissa Lorenson do just that. Literally.

They both volunteer for the Red Deer Royals. As David explained, “Red Deer Royals (are) a Marching/Parade/Show band that has members that range from 12-21 years old.”

Both David and Melissa help to maintain the Red Deer Royals website, which is no easy task. The site is informative, useful and easy to navigate. And David and Melissa keep it that way. Almost all of the information about the Red Deer Royals can easily be found within it.

But their contributions do not end there. Both David and Melissa do additional work for the Royals. David holds the title of Westerner Events Coordinator, and Melissa does a large chunk of Public Relations for the organization.

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But that still doesn’t exhaust their work with the organization. As David told me, “…we are also chaperones and we help other parents understand the requirements for fundraising/volunteering to help keep the organization working as smoothly as possible.”

Their work is a family affair. Their children are members of the band. Initially hesitant to become involved themselves, they eventually decided to play the integral role in the organization that they now do.

Their volunteer work extends past working for the Royals. David volunteers for the Red Deer Rebels. “I am helping out with the stats, video replay, +/-, goal judge (whatever is needed).”

Both David and Melissa volunteered for the Winter Games last year, in various roles.

Although Melissa has focused on her work with the Royals lately, she has a history of volunteering. As she explained to me, “I have devoted most of my volunteer time to the Red Deer Royals in the last few years however I did volunteer with the Winter games and also a little bit with Girl Guides.” And she wants to do more in the future: “I have put my name forward to help with the Red Deer Festival of Performing Arts.”

It should be mentioned that both David and Melissa do all of this volunteering while maintaining full-time jobs, which makes their contributions to the community all the more impressive. David is a System Analyst with the Red Deer Public School District and Melissa maintains student records at Lindsay Thurber.

The bottom line is that, although they may not share the limelight with the Red Deer Royals, they are integral to its function. Their work deserves to be recognized, and that is the reason why Volunteer Central selected them as co-winners of the Volunteer of the Month. David and Melissa, you certainly deserve it.

Thank you for keeping the drums beating.

(written by Volunteer Central staff)