Chamber President Everhart retiring after nearly 30 years

While a specific date hasn’t been determined, Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Carol Everhart has announced she’s retiring. 

The chamber needs someone young and someone who loves technology, said Everhart during an interview April 9. She said her decision is in the best interest of continued success for the chamber.

Everhart, who turned 81 June 1, has been with the chamber since the early 1990s and its leader since 1996.

Everhart grew up on a farm in the mountains of Huntingdon, Pa., near State College.

“I rode a pet pig,” she said.

When she was about 10 years old, she and her parents moved to Washington, D.C., where her dad drove a taxicab and her mom was a waitress. She went to school, got married to a mining engineer, had two kids and lived all over the country because of her husband’s work. Ultimately, that marriage ended in divorce.

“I got two wonderful children out of it, but it didn’t work out,” said Everhart.

In 1979, Everhart was in Maryland and starting over as a single mom with two kids. She said she saw an ad in one of the local newspapers for a housing program in Delaware that was offering low-interest home loans if certain requirements were met, and she didn’t have to work in Delaware. She qualified for the loan, got a job working for Ocean City, and moved to Delaware with her two kids.

“It was a little A-frame in Fenwick Island,” said Everhart. “It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Sometimes a person just has to persevere.”

In addition to her job with Ocean City, Everhart had a small event-planning business called Events by Everhart. It was under that umbrella that she crossed paths with the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber. Again, she answered an ad. The chamber’s members were looking to create an off-season event that would bring people to town before the holidays, said Everhart.

“It was 1989. This was still at the time when everyone was leaving as soon as Labor Day ended,” said Everhart. “I had never done anything like it, but I decided to give it a try.”

The short version of the story is that the chamber hired her, and that event is now the annual Sea Witch Festival that brings 200,000 people to Rehoboth Beach over the course of the three-day weekend.

“There were only 5,000 people in town that first year. I was devastated, but the chamber board was happy,” said Everhart.

Soon afterward, Everhart became the chamber’s marketing person, and then a few years after that, the executive director in 1996.

“Here I still am,” said Everhart.

Cultured Pearl owner Susan Wood is the chamber board’s new chair. She took the reins in March. While the board chair is often a ceremonial position, Wood has known replacing Everhart would be her responsibility. She’s been on the board for nearly two decades and is on the board succession committee responsible for finding Everhart’s replacement.

Finding the right person is going to be a challenge because of Everhart’s passion and knowledge, said Wood. They’re big shoes to fill, she said.

“My heart is broken to see her leave. I’m totally against her going,” said Wood, jokingly. “Carol’s why the chamber has been as amazing as it’s been.”

In the 30 years Everhart has been with the chamber, membership has grown significantly. It’s now the largest chamber in the state.

When she started, there were a little more than 100 members, said Everhart. Today, there are 1,313 members.

“I like to think I’m an optimist, but I never saw this coming,” said Everhart, deflecting credit to her staff and the chamber membership. “I like to say I ride on the shoulders of my amazing staff, and I couldn’t have worked for a better group of board members.”

Working with business owners stressed about their businesses isn’t always easy, but Everhart said she makes it work by listening. 

“Everybody is different. I don’t have to agree, but I have to listen,” she said. “That listening pays off, but sometimes it’s not easy.”

Everhart said she didn’t anticipate staying with the chamber so long. Instead, she said, she thought she’d know when it was time.

“I thought it was going to be the aging process. What I didn’t expect was that it would be the work itself telling me,” said Everhart, laughing. “It’s the way today’s world is. What I do know is that I won’t be sitting at home doing nothing.”

As for the process of replacing Everhart, Wood said they will begin collecting resumes and evaluating candidates immediately. There will be a national search, and then there will be interviews, and then the chosen person will need to acclimate, she said.

Everhart said she’ll be around to help guide the chamber through that transition. When her successor has been selected, that’s when a date will be set for her retirement, she said.