REGINA -- As many in Saskatchewan continue to work from home, the new way of life poses a unique set of challenges for one unique employee of the province.

Leah Mertz is the 2020 Saskatchewanderer, a job that involves travelling across the province, showcasing all it has to offer and speaking with those who make local communities stand out.

“Just a few days ago was the first trip I took officially on the job that was outside of my house,” Mertz told CTV News Regina.

She said it was the job description that appealed to her most, just like it did for Andrew Hiltz when he was the Saskatchewanderer in 2017.

"Going from event to event, business to business and just showcase the best of the province," Hiltz said.

As COVID-19 spread across the province, events were cancelled, travel was restricted and face to face meetings were limited, and Mertz had to adjust the way she did the job.

“I still wanted to explore the province, so I kind of started doing what I was referring to as ‘virtual wandering’ and wandering from home.”

Her new way of performing the job means posting videos from her house instead of on the road, Googling information instead of hands-on learning and finding alternative ways to connect with people.

“Still trying to find new things that were happening, talking to different people online of what was happening in their corner of the province, how they were dealing with things,” Mertz said.

One of tourism Saskatchewan’s initiatives during the pandemic is #ExploreSaskLater, which encourages people to share photos of their favourite parts of the province.

 

“We got to really sit back and appreciate the province because we weren’t able to get to those places like we normally would have been able to do,” she said.

 

As restrictions slowly lift in the province, the Saskatchewanderer will ease back into a normal routine.

 

“I’m excited to finally get out there a little bit. Obviously it’s going to be a bit different and interactions with people are going to be a bit different,” Mertz said.

 

But for now, she’ll be wandering from home, and exploring Saskatchewan later.