Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Carol Everhart will oversee her final Sea Witch Festival this weekend in Rehoboth Beach. The longtime leader of the chamber is retiring effective Jan. 1, when Kate VanVorst, the chamber’s event coordinator and membership representative, will take over. 

The chamber contracted Everhart in 1989 to make the Sea Witch event happen on a budget of $5,000. The first year drew 5,000 people, and Everhart said she can remember feeling devastated by the low turnout. More than 35 years later, the festival’s three-day weekend will bring 200,000 people to Rehoboth Beach if the weather is good.

In this photograph from 1996, Everhart, dressed as a ladybug, poses for a photograph with then-chamber President Sue Krick.