Whenever someone starts a new job and moves to a new community, they hope their legacy in their upcoming role will be as positive as possible.
For Gerry Onyskevitch, there's little question that will certainly be the case.
Onyskevitch, 63, will retire as the general manager of the Moose Jaw Co-op at the end of January, leaving behind a history of almost unparalleled repair, growth and success that has the local supermarket standing as one of the top places to shop in the city.
It definitely wasn't that way when he first showed up in 1991, leaving behind a similar story of success in Dauphin, Man. to take over what was by all accounts a struggling store facing many difficulties.
In the 27 years since, the Co-op building has undergone massive renovations and modernization, some changes that weren't too popular when they happened but have been embraced since. A large gas bar has been installed at the main location and the business expanded into a massive fuel station in a prime location on South Hill.
There has been growth and positivity from start to finish.
So when Onyskevitch announced he was leaving the company after 42 years of work throughout western Canada, there was little doubt he'd be recognized for all his hard work. With that in mind, around 50 people took part in a special retirement dinner and celebration for Onyskevitch on Jan. 19 at the Heritage Inn, creating an evening filled with memories and plenty of laughs.
“I feel good about it,” said Onyskevitch about his time with the Co-op. “When I came here, things were in rough shape but once the community support started to come, it almost started to come easy. One thing led to another and people thought it would be good, so people thought the next thing would be good and it just continued on from there.
“So it's been really good. I have no regrets about anything that happened here, it's been a good time and I've rather enjoyed it.”
The interesting thing about Onyskevitch's work is how few the missteps were along the way. As one speaker said in the special memories video shown during the event, everything he touched seemed to turn to gold.
“It's like (operations manager/controller) Jamie (Wright) said, I had a group that was really good, so when we were doing things we made sure that we did look at all the options and potential risks that we would do,” Onyskevitch said. “Make sure that the decisions were the right decisions to make. Most of them turned out decent, I can't remember a whole lot that didn't turn out good, and that's luck and people helping out and making a difference.”
When asked of his greatest accomplishment with the Co-op, Onyskevitch chose to recognize the people he worked with as opposed to direct personal goals.
“It's probably not one thing, just overall the success we had and the support we received from the community,” he said. “There were so many people who came in and worked with me for awhile, spent time training and went on to become general managers. I have a lot of them out there who trained with me and are now running retail the same size as I'm running and we have good communication.
“And even to this day I talk to those guys about 'what do you think about this' and 'how do you think this would work'. That's the thing about the Co-op system, we do have that and we do talk about things and take advantage about someone's success, and someone's failure, is someone screws up at something we try to correct it and do something. Overall, it's not just one thing.”
While Onyskevitch has no immediate post-retirement plans, spending time with the grandkids and stopping by his old stomping grounds for the occasional coffee is on his list of things to do.
“I don't know, we don't have a lot of plans,” he said of he and wife Lorna's upcoming time away from the working world. “I do have a workshop that I built a few years ago in my backyard, I like to do woodworking and it's all back there but not put together. It needs to all be organized, so that's what I plan to do for awhile, but no real plans other than that.”
What it all comes down to in the end is timing and wrapping up his Co-op story in his own words, even if he'll miss many of the people he saw from day to day.
“I feel I made lots of friendships, not only a work relationship, but we socialized, took a managers trip to Vegas a few different times, and we really got to know people outside of work.” Onyskevitch said. “Those are the kinds of things you enjoy and you hope it continues on.
“It's nice to leave in this situation, there are some people who left because they had to. I'm glad I don't have to do that, I'm leaving on my own and there's an appreciation. I can come back and have coffee and enjoy it and hang out and have fun. That's what I'm looking forward to.”
