Feature
USQ Volunteer Spotlight: Kelsey Peterson
As part of USQ’s new series on volunteers, we profile Kelsey Peterson, Member E-mail Coordinator. An avid athlete, Peterson joined USQ after a season of playing with Florida State University.
Kelsey Peterson officially joined USQ as a volunteer at the beginning of 2014, but she was involved with the sport before that as a player on Florida State University’s quidditch team in 2012. “I'm a big Harry Potter fan and I have always liked playing sports,” Peterson says. “In the end, I fell in love with the game and couldn’t stay away.”
Her on-pitch quidditch career was cut short when Peterson graduated that same year, but she was determined to find new ways to stay with the sport: “I graduated from FSU in 2013, so I was ineligible to play with them the next season,” Peterson explains. “At the time, I was fresh from my first season as a quidditch player and I was eager to find more ways to get involved with the league.”
Fast-forward to January 2014, when Peterson took her first position with USQ as a Member E-mail Coordinator. Peterson assists with drafting and sending emails to USQ members and fans, ensuring that newsletters and email blasts look fantastic while also letting the community know what’s going on with the league. It’s an invaluable role that she has developed to meet member needs, and still manages to this day.
“When I took the position, Member E-mail Coordinator was a new role within the membership department,” Peterson says. “In the beginning, it was a process of experimenting and deciding what types of e-mails our members should be receiving, what they should say, how they should look, etc.”
Since taking on the job of coordinator in 2014, Peterson hasn’t been afraid to spread out in USQ, and even worked on the South Regionals planning committee that same year. But her favorite moment so far was when she volunteered at World Cup VII.
“While field managing at World Cup VII I had two games back to back start on time. That felt pretty momentous to me at the time,” she remembers.
Another momentous feat? Peterson’s return to the quidditch pitch after a year hiatus. “I took a year off from playing to instead focus on ‘adult life’ and volunteering for the league,” Peterson explains. But when graduate school relocated her to Chicago, she jumped at the chance to play for Blue Mountain Quidditch Club during the 2014-15 season.
This year, Peterson is staying on the sidelines again to finish her master’s degree, but she isn’t planning to sub out of her position as USQ’s Member E-mail Coordinator any time soon.
“Volunteering has certainly been a way to bridge the gap between my playing seasons and to stay involved with quidditch even without stepping onto the pitch,” Peterson says. “I would like to play again next season (got to keep the pattern alive, haha), but we shall see where life takes me.”
Whether you’ve already gotten your start with quidditch on a team or would like to contribute behind the scenes, make a difference like Peterson and apply with USQ here!
Jessica Shock is a Writing graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design, and after spending a year working Florida's theme parks, she's back in Georgia as Wild Adventures Theme Park's new Communications Coordinator. Of course, she still keeps her connection to the Wizarding World strong by writing profile pieces of US Quidditch volunteers and blogging about business at The Wizarding Gazette.
