Meet Kent Leithold of Vista Chamber of Commerce

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kent Leithold.

Kent, before we jump into specific questions about your organization, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My Vista! I don’t live here, but call it home, You will learn why. Vista is a medium-sized city in northeastern San Diego county – known for having perfect climate (“climatic wonderland”) – was considered to be the 7th best city to live according to Forbes a few years ago!

Needing to find work after the recession of 2008 and trying to keep my head on, I went back to school to take some classes to stay fresh while continuing to look for employment. During one of the classes, an instructor gave me a flyer from the Vista Chamber of Commerce. It seems the Chamber was looking for an unpaid intern to help with an upcoming project. My instructor gave me the push to call and set up an interview with the CEO. Well, the interview went like gangbusters and I started on the project immediately. A small, great team of players at the Vista Chamber. We all got along famously, to say the least. After the project was done, while still looking for employment and school, I stayed on helping in any way I could. One thing eventually led to the next and after some time found myself employed as the Chamber’s Administrative Assistant. As time has gone on, I am now the Events Coordinator for the Chamber – the “Director of First Impressions”.

Proud of my thriving community and Chamber. Not many jobs were you are on a first-name basis with Congressmen, Senators, City Council, the Mayor, other elected officials…the School District Superintendent, major corporations in our business park and all of our hard-working small business owners. I truly love people and my job is the perfect platform,

So much going on…A new CEO here at the Vista Chamber – Rachel Beld, We are the microbrewery capital of craft beer, home to the tremendous Moonlight Amphitheatre (www.moonlightstage.com). The Moonlight is a state of the art open-air venue for a summer season of B’way shows, concerts & other events (i am a proud Board Member), host the City’s signature event – The Strawberry Festival in May. The festival in downtown brings in 100,000+ to the city for a one-day street fair with five stages with entertainment, 450 vendors, contests, 5K & 10K races.

Quite an undertaking for the Chamber staff of 4 ½! Our Historic Downtown is thriving with restaurants, breweries, luxury apartments that are being constructed, a coworking one-of-a-kind film and television studio, and our cement-like Pepper Tree Frosty (hometown Ice cream and hamburger shop) which is almost 60 years old. The Chamber is a connector to the community. The launched the Rising Star of the Month program in 2014. Six to eight high school seniors from local high schools are honored each month. It is a testament to students who have persevered through challenging circumstances in life and have made their education a priority – with the ultimate goal for the Chamber to provide scholarships to students at the end of the school year. There is so much more…

In my spare time, I care for an aging parent and feed my passion of music and theatre by going to MANY concerts – all of my uber-talented theater friends and musician friends keep my passion and imagination constantly changing and growing. Love. Passionate. Avid, Enthusiastic…a few of my favorite words.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As I described before, finding the right job after the 2008 recession, losing two best friends to cancer and losing by dad almost 20 years ago have certainly been stumbling blocks. Having my best friend and CEO of the Vista Chamber leave after nine years was a biggy last year…We all have obstacles we face – every day. You just pull up those Underoos and dig your heels in for the challenge.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
So proud of all the connections we make through the Chamber. The networking, learning, voice and watching the growth and impact.

My love of people, truly deep, down passion for friends, family is like no other. My smile and a mischievous twinkle in my eye…a forever Peter Pan. I refuse to grow old.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Since I am a caretaker for an aging parent, I just have to look a day ahead, Not too far, and enjoy EVERY day. I am up Monday through Friday and out the door excising by 5:30 am and never fail to see or hear a new flower blooming, birds singing or car backfire…

Contact Info:

• Address: www.VistaChamber.org (760) 726-1122

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