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Friday, August 22, 2025

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Sizzle and sear, Corex BBQ was a huge success on a beautiful warm sunny day. On Thursday, August 14, Corex hosted their annual BBQ at Victoria Park. This free BBQ is open to everyone and is a wonderful way to welcome all rodeo fans and riders to Virden.

Corex brings in only local ingredients from the local Valleyview Co-op for the event. Patties, hot dogs, buns, all the fixings, drinks, cookies and chips are all ordered well in advance and picked up from the Co-op to be served to the community. Approximately 1200 hamburgers and 700 hot dogs were served to the masses. A big shout out to Saunders Water and Ice for providing a freezer for the Corex team to keep the frozen patties and wieners before cooking. All unopened left-over supplies were donated to the Food Cupboard in Virden.

The first few years that Corex put on this event, they did not have matching shirts. It was then decided it would be a nice idea for the community to be able to identify the workers. They originally started this BBQ in July 2004 at which time they were owned by Chevron Canada Resources. At the time, Chevron had sold to Enerplus Resources and was exiting Virden area. Corex held the BBQ as an opportunity to welcome in the new ownership group which signalled to the area that oil production was still here to stay. They did not do a BBQ in 2005 but in 2006, Corex came up with the idea to host it as a kickoff to the rodeo. In December of 2012, Enerplus sold to Corex Resources Ltd. and the directors and management felt it was important to continue the tradition. Since then, it has been an annual event, and the rest is history.

Only six local Corex members were missing from the event this year and only due to yearly maintenance that was being done at one of their facilities. Usually there are 35 members from the Virden office and a few senior management members from the head office in Calgary fly in to help out as well. The Calgary management team members are always amazed to see the event.

Not only does Corex cook up a fantastic meal, but they provide entertainment for the afternoon too. For the past few years Corex has had DJ Bryan Podwarny from Expressions Entertainment out of Ninette play to the crowd on the Victoria Park stage. Bryan is a very talented DJ who put on a great show and was great at interacting with the crowd, including the large number of kids that make it out each year for this event. The local daycares and day camps bring all their children down to the park for an afternoon of food and fun. Byran’s enthusiasm and energy with the kids was just amazing.

Corex also gives away dance ribbons and beach balls to all the kids that come out. The children were waving their ribbons and dancing the afternoon away listening to the DJ. Or they were playing with their beach balls all around the park. Corex brought 300 dance ribbons and 200 beach balls to the park that day and they were all gone. There were string backpacks and fridge magnet clips for the adults too. Sharon Rhodes won a Corex logo blanket, lawn chair, and hoodie door prize.

It was great to see so many people come together to have a fun and relaxing afternoon in Victoria Park.

BBQing at its finest

By Jessica Coulter