New Pierceton Chamber President Gravitated To Job
February 25, 2022 at 11:12 p.m.
New Pierceton Chamber President Gravitated To Job
By Jackie Gorski-
DeGaetano became president in January.
When she opened up her store, Kelsea Designs, 105 W. Market St., Pierceton, in 2014, she joined the Chamber, but wasn’t super active at that point. After a year or two, she became more active.
Former President Alicia Elder decided to leave the position mid-term for personal reasons, DeGaetano said. DeGaetano had been Elder’s vice president and Elder thought DeGaetano would be a good fit for the president position.
DeGaetano had been a member at-large for about five years and vice president for the last year or two. She just gravitated toward the president role, she said.
The role of president typically lasts for two years, but is not limited. The Chamber has had a person serve as president for four or more years. She doesn’t know how long she will hold the role of president.
When asked what the role of Chamber president was, DeGaetano said connecting with all of Pierceton’s shops so the Chamber can have its Shop Hop and Shop Small Saturday in November and helping in all the Chamber events, such as Pierceton Days and the Tomato Festival. With her role in the Chamber, DeGaetano says she tries to connect everybody and help plan those Chamber events so they can keep those building blocks going throughout the year. She also needs to coordinate things so she knows who is doing what.
DeGaetano hopes to attend more Pierceton Town Council meetings so she can stay in the loop of different things that may not necessarily affect the Chamber, but could or might do so. That way, she can stay more involved in the town and meet more people.
She has paperwork from the mid-2000s and said it’s amazing to go through that and see people who were involved in the town back then and what they did, as well as the fact those same people are sometimes still involved in Pierceton.
DeGaetano said she wasn’t involved with very many organizations in a leadership role in her past, but now serving with the Chamber, she feels the Chamber is extending out to the community.
“We all just care and we want to make people happy” and give the community things they can be part of and enjoy, she said.
One example DeGaetano gave was Christmas in Pierceton Untangled, although the Chamber didn’t run the event, another group did. They raised funds and had a parade and carolers.
“Being a part of that, I was near sobbing,” DeGaetano said. She said the reason for that was “it was so exciting because our small town came together and did that for everybody around themselves” and every one was connected to “bring that joy.”
“That’s why I enjoy being on our Chamber as opposed to any other organization. It’s just a group of friends who are not like super intense, we’re not super by the book by how a Chamber should work. It’s calm, it’s peaceful. It’s a group of friends and neighbors and acquaintances that get together and plan things for people to come and enjoy,” DeGaetano said.
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DeGaetano became president in January.
When she opened up her store, Kelsea Designs, 105 W. Market St., Pierceton, in 2014, she joined the Chamber, but wasn’t super active at that point. After a year or two, she became more active.
Former President Alicia Elder decided to leave the position mid-term for personal reasons, DeGaetano said. DeGaetano had been Elder’s vice president and Elder thought DeGaetano would be a good fit for the president position.
DeGaetano had been a member at-large for about five years and vice president for the last year or two. She just gravitated toward the president role, she said.
The role of president typically lasts for two years, but is not limited. The Chamber has had a person serve as president for four or more years. She doesn’t know how long she will hold the role of president.
When asked what the role of Chamber president was, DeGaetano said connecting with all of Pierceton’s shops so the Chamber can have its Shop Hop and Shop Small Saturday in November and helping in all the Chamber events, such as Pierceton Days and the Tomato Festival. With her role in the Chamber, DeGaetano says she tries to connect everybody and help plan those Chamber events so they can keep those building blocks going throughout the year. She also needs to coordinate things so she knows who is doing what.
DeGaetano hopes to attend more Pierceton Town Council meetings so she can stay in the loop of different things that may not necessarily affect the Chamber, but could or might do so. That way, she can stay more involved in the town and meet more people.
She has paperwork from the mid-2000s and said it’s amazing to go through that and see people who were involved in the town back then and what they did, as well as the fact those same people are sometimes still involved in Pierceton.
DeGaetano said she wasn’t involved with very many organizations in a leadership role in her past, but now serving with the Chamber, she feels the Chamber is extending out to the community.
“We all just care and we want to make people happy” and give the community things they can be part of and enjoy, she said.
One example DeGaetano gave was Christmas in Pierceton Untangled, although the Chamber didn’t run the event, another group did. They raised funds and had a parade and carolers.
“Being a part of that, I was near sobbing,” DeGaetano said. She said the reason for that was “it was so exciting because our small town came together and did that for everybody around themselves” and every one was connected to “bring that joy.”
“That’s why I enjoy being on our Chamber as opposed to any other organization. It’s just a group of friends who are not like super intense, we’re not super by the book by how a Chamber should work. It’s calm, it’s peaceful. It’s a group of friends and neighbors and acquaintances that get together and plan things for people to come and enjoy,” DeGaetano said.
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