Friday, Jun. 06, 2008
Making It Special
By AMANDA ROGERSNews-Mirror Writer
Cohagen, 35, is the city’s first cultural arts special events supervisor. She takes over the newly created post Monday.
"I had some ideas and they wanted someone who was a bit of a go-getter," she said.
Cohagen fits nicely into the job since she has been doing a lot of the same duties for the past two years as activities supervisor at the Mansfield Activities Center. Some of her responsibilities include Hometown Holidays, Winter Walk and Night on the Town, all of which she has coordinated or worked on. Many of the special events are new, but are proving to be quite popular with residents.
"There’s a lot of change going on," Cohagen said. "If people can have things that keep them in Mansfield or bring them to Mansfield, that’s going to be exciting."
The new post came from the city’s growth, said Andrew Binz, recreation superintendent.
"We’ve streamlined some responsibilities," Binz said. "A few years ago when we were looking at expanding the MAC we wanted to get an idea of the costs. To get a truer sense of the costs of the MAC, we made a cultural arts budget for Night on the Town, Hometown Holidays. Then we found a need for someone to head up that budget."
The city also wants to know how visitors are spending their money, Binz said.
"She’ll be keeping track of hotel/motel stays and what people are doing when they visit Mansfield," he said. "If you come for a ballgame at Big League Dreams, did you know about Hawaiian Falls or Night on the Town? We want to see if people are utilizing those facilities and are they creating out-of-town visitors."
Cohagen will also be the go-to person with the city for other special events, like the Pecan Festival and historic downtown events. She will represent the city on the festival committees. Before that responsibility was passed around among the parks and recreation personnel.
Cohagen will also be soliciting sponsorships.
"Theresa’s got a lot of skills in marketing and creating partnerships," Binz said.
Already, she has lined up Chesapeake Energy to sponsor Fourth of July fireworks for the city.
Cohagen has been lining up big events for a long time. The Las Vegas native attended Texas Woman’s University, majoring in theater for two years before switching to nutrition.
After graduation, she went to work at the City Club of Fort Worth as a nutrition coordinator. From there, she went to Baylor Hospital in Fort Worth to work as a wellness coordinator. She then worked as senior center coordinator for the city of Arlington before coming to Mansfield.
She has learned a lot about planning and coordinating large groups of people. For the past two years, she has organized the Hometown Holidays event.
"People think I do it all," she said. "I just have great committees."
Coco Garcia, who has been a recreation coordinator, will take over as the activities supervisor. Cohagen will continue to work with Garcia, the staff at the MAC and volunteers.
She doesn’t think finding volunteers to help with special events will be a challenge, she said. Cohagen would also like to work with other entities in Mansfield to hold big events, she said.
Cohagen’s husband of eight years, Matt, helped inspire other ideas. Matt Cohagen, a car salesman in Mansfield, runs triathlons.
"I would like to have more fitness things, bring in triathlons," she said "If we could work out something with the MISD to use their pool, it would bring a lot of people to the area."
Cohagen is excited about the new opportunities her job brings.
"You don’t get too many opportunities in life where they say 'We like your ideas, let’s see where it goes,’" she said.
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