Years ago, Tara Lee took part in the Leadership Nebraska Program.
“I fell in love with it,” said Lea, who knew she wanted to be executive director of that program someday.
Lea is president and chief executive officer of the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce. For almost seven years, she’s been at the helm of an organization that works to promote business climate and help improve the Fremont area economy.
Like others in the community, Lea has seen Fremont weather the damaging and historic flood of 2019. She’s helped businesses as they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lea’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Earlier this month, the Mid-America Chamber Executives presented Lea with the “Executive of the Year Award.”
The award is presented to a chamber executive who has demonstrated vision, commitment and passion for the advancement of their chamber, community and the chamber industry.
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“I was absolutely blown away and surprised,” Lea said. “It’s a six-state region of amazing chamber executives, so to even be amongst the names of past winners is incredible.”
Now, Lea will embark on another endeavor as she runs the Leadership Nebraska Program for the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce. Her last day with the Fremont chamber is Friday. She begins her new job on May 22 in Lincoln.
The public is invited to a farewell party for Lea from 4-6 p.m., Wednesday, May 17, at Fremont Golf Club, 2710 N. Somers Ave. Attendees can wish her well before she takes on her new job.
Leadership Nebraska is a statewide program. Thirty people from across the state are chosen each year to participate in the program, which consists of six, three-day sessions. Participants go across Nebraska learning about the issues communities face and/or are overcoming. The issues could involve childcare or housing. At the same time, participants learn about what these communities have to offer, such as their educational systems.
Lea said her job will be to showcase wonderful things happening in Nebraska. She’ll help build leaders.
“A lot of people who’ve gone through the program have then gone on to be mayors of their towns or city council members or state senators,” Lea said, noting that the program offers a fun place to grow as a leader.
Lea appreciates her Leadership Nebraska predecessor, Roberta Pinkerton, who has retired.
“She’s amazing and she has done wonderful things for the program,” Lea said. “It will be very easy to take over and make sure it has wonderful success.”
During her time at the Fremont chamber, Lea has attended about 170 ribbon cuttings.
“It’s crazy how much Fremont has grown during the past seven years and I’ve loved being part of that,” Lea said.
She’s seen challenges during her tenure, such as how to help businesses affected by the 2019 flood. She appreciated seeing the business community help the community – such as HyVee Food Store, which had semi-trailer trucks bring in food and private planes, whose pilots took people out of Fremont and brought in supplies.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought its own challenges.
“As a chamber, we are event-based and we do so many events each year, so to not be able to get people together was an incredible challenge,” Lea said. “So we restructured how the chamber did things and focused more on online education, but also had one-on-one contact that was so important for relationship building.”
Lea said the chamber worked with Fremont manufacturers via Zoom calls to help keep employees safe. That could mean finding who had the needed hand sanitizer or masks. Businesses helped each other construct the Plexiglass sneeze guard shields, which were situated between employees to help keep them safe.
Some businesses faced financial hardship during the pandemic.
“We made small grants for businesses that were struggling,” she said.
Other businesses did well during the pandemic.
“Grocery stores did well, because everybody was eating at home,” she said. “Everybody needed groceries and they (stores) did an amazing job of getting food to folks who couldn’t come in and shop or having special hours for folks who were at higher risk.”
Home improvement and hobby stores fared well as people were spending more time in their homes.
Lea has seen growth within the chamber.
“It’s been my goal for the seven years I’ve been here to have a total of 600 chamber (business) members and we just hit that two weeks ago,” she said.
This includes businesses in an area that extends from Fremont to North Bend and some smaller communities around the county and a handful of Omaha members who conduct business in Fremont.
“We’ve improved on a number of events that we have throughout the community – from the golf tournaments to Beerfest to all of our banquets,” she said.
Lea appreciates the support she’s received throughout the years.
“I have been blessed with amazing support from the membership, the board of directors and I truly have the best team here at the chamber,” Lea said.
She’s been pleased by the bonds that have formed in the community.
“I’m most proud of the strong relationship that the chamber now has with the city, the Greater Fremont Development Council (GFDC) and so many other organizations across our community. We’re all one team. Better together,” she said.
She will miss seeing the inland port authority progress and further growth of Fremont.
In February, Fremont was chosen as one of the first inland port authorities in Nebraska, which can lead to industrial development. The GFDC played a major role in helping to bring this about.
Lea will miss the people with whom she’s worked.
“I love the Fremont community, watching those businesses grow and watching the community continue to succeed,” she said.
Earlier this year, Mayor Joey Spellerberg commended Lea for her work and contributions.
“Tara has taken the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce to the next level,” Spellerberg said. “Her skills in marketing, event planning, and social media have brought great value to local businesses and Fremont.”
Lea said a search committee is looking for a new Fremont chamber president and CEO and hopes to find someone within the next couple of weeks.
“The chamber is probably in the best place it’s been in years, not because of me,” Lea said. “It’s because the right people have been in the right place. I have no doubt that my successor will do tremendous things.”