According to Monty Isert, after owning and operating several successful businesses, and even after spending the last 20 years as the Dewberry UFA Petroleum Agent, he's still trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up. Monty was raised in the area, between Vermilion and Lloydminster, and he has worn many hats. The Lakeland College alumna graduated as a Certified Draftsman but quickly realized drafting doesn't always pay the bills. "Unfortunately, it's not a very lucrative career and unless you want to live in your parents' basement forever, you're going to need to figure something else out," he jokes. And so, Monty continued in his pursuit of finding the perfect career.
He's been a trucker, a hotel owner/operator, a drag racer and became a Licensed Optician, owning a local optical clinic in Lloydminster. After a few years of looking into people's eyes, he felt he needed another change of pace and went to work in the oil patch. When the industry crashed in 1998, he literally found himself as the last guy standing for his then employer. And not tool long after, he found himself standing at the local Service Canada site applying for EI. It was there that he ran into long-time friend, Meredith Whiteside. "Meredith was the local UFA Petroleum Agent, and he asked me if I wanted to come work for him," says Isert. "I told him, I didn't want to be an employee, but if he wanted to sell me the business, I'd become the Agent.
Just a couple of years later, I took over as the Dewberry UFA Petroleum Agent and would you believe it, it wasn't long before Meredith got bored and came back to work for me," he laughs. "We had a really good long-term friendship, where he was more like a brother to me," adds Isert. "In fact, his daughter, Connie, works for me as well, and she's like family too." Isert says that growing up and living in a small town, it's pretty much like that. "If you aren't related, chances are you are very good friends, and you're about as close as family. Everyone knows everyone, which certainly helps with business."
And despite some challenging years recently, business has been good for Isert. The best part, he says, is that he sleeps in his own bed every night and he's just two miles from home, and most importantly, his girls. But Jenny and Zoey, Isert's "daughters" as he calls them, aren't typical. His girls are the very furry kind. "I'm a single dad to my two sweet golden retrievers, they are thirteen and eleven years old, and they are my world. If it wasn't for them, I don't know where I'd be," he says. And make no mistake, there's a story behind that.
About four years ago, Isert was working out in the farmyard when a piece of machinery fell, pinned and crushed him. Laying there, not able to breathe, he had resigned himself to the fact that this would be the end; that was, until Jenny and Zoey began crying, yelping and trying to dig him out. He knew that he needed to get out for his girls. Somehow, he was able to free himself and get to the phone to call a neighbour. Isert was transported by ambulance to the local hospital and then airlifted to the University of Alberta Hospital. His injuries were extensive and included a punctured lung, several broken ribs, broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder and as he puts it "something wrong with a heart vessel". Regardless of how much pain he was in, all he could think about was getting back to his dogs, and to spend his life trying to pay it forward to the first responders that helped save his life that day. That's why, in honour of his 20 years at UFA, Isert is donating $2000.00 to be split between the Dewberry Fire and Rescue Department and the Dewberry Hall Society.
Isert adds that in addition to being grateful for first responders, and for his fur babies, he is also grateful for the neighbours and friends, his customers, that is he able to help as a Petroleum Agent. "I'm lucky that my customers are my friends and they trust me. Most times they don't even put in an order, they have always just said, you take care of it, Monty. Seventy-five per cent of them don't even order fuel, I know when they are low and how much storage they have, and when their busy seasons are, so I do just that and take care of it for them, so that they don't need to worry."
UFA Co-operative is certainly grateful to you Monty, and grateful that you've chosen to spend 20 years as the UFA Petroleum Agent in Dewberry, all while figuring out what you want to be when you grow up! You've set the standard for excellence in anticipating your customer's needs, and for giving back to your community. Congratulations!