Huntingburg’s new chamber director is already embedded in the community

Elizabeth Bartelt is completely at ease taking over the Chamber directorship the week of one of the city’s biggest events.

Bartelt’s first day on the job was Tuesday; just in time to help with the Garden Gate Jazz, Art, Wine and Craft Beer Festival.

But it’s not a problem for the 24-year-old Huntingburg native, she and her sister, Emily Meyer, have been directing large events for awhile. The two are heavily involved in the Herbstfest and operate the popular Puttin’ on the Hits feature each year.

This involvement and connection to the community was one of the reasons the Chamber Board of Directors chose Bartelt over other applicants. “We were blessed to have Nick Stevens for as long as we did,” Board president Al Mihajlovits said, “but, we knew there would come a time when he would leave.”

Stevens and his wife Amy will continue to live in Huntingburg and he still serves on several committees planning and hosting events in the city and county.

According to Mihajlovits though, when Stevens left, the board made a decision to seek someone with a deep connection to the community. “When we started looking for someone, we knew we wanted someone that could reach out to all the businesses and generate even more businesses as members to the chamber,” he said. “We wanted someone that was already embedded in the community because we thought that person would try that much harder. With Elizabeth we found that.”

Mihajlovits has known Bartelt since she was in elementary school — as the former-principal does with many people in the community that have passed through Southridge’s middle school. He sees her as that connection to the existing businesses and community members as well as someone who can attract the younger generation to the area.

With Tuesday only being her second day on the job, Bartelt isn’t ready to launch her plans to attract the younger generation but she did say she has an event in mind for the future. For now, she is just getting acclimated to her new office and Stevens has dedicated the next three weeks to help her do so but he doesn’t think it will take that long. “She has already hit the ground running,” he said.

And its no wonder, Bartelt has a deep connection to the community. Although the larger cities hold an attraction to her, she still returned to Huntingburg after graduating from the Herron School of Art and Design at the IUPUI, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus on photography.

After finishing an internship at Stens, she remained in the area working different jobs and doing some photography on the side.

Her dedication and connection to the community was apparent recently when she used that photography background to assist the group Destination Huntingburg, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the downtown area as part of the Main Street Indiana program. She volunteered to take photos of the buildings included in the program to help with the Main Street designation.

Additionally, with the role the chamber takes in marketing the city, Bartelt’s photography training is definitely an asset.

Her connection to the Fourth Street merchants through her family is what led her to apply for the chamber director position. “My grandmother has worked on Fourth Street forever; she is 82 years old and still puts in time at the [Antique] Emporium,” she laughed. “So, after they heard about Nick, they [merchants] said I should check into it.”

Unsure of what the director did, she contacted Stevens who has continued working with the Chamber for the past three months while the organization went through the transition. “When I learned more about it, I decided that it seemed like something I would like to do a lot,” she said.

The chamber director is actively involved in promoting the community through the events like the Herbstfest, Jazz Fest and Haunted Huntingburg. Bartelt says that the events for the city will be a large focus during her tenure. “Anything we can involve our merchants and our members in will grow the community,” she said. “Plus, I love planning stuff.”

Maybe the more daunting aspect of her job is the fact that the 24-year-old is now the face for an important community foundation. But, she is ready to take on that prominent role. “It has made me feel more complete stepping into this position as the executive director,” she said.

Bartelt is also the new head coach of the Southridge Middle School girls’ track team and has volunteered with the high school cross country and track teams.

“I am looking forward to getting to know those community members I don’t know,” she said although she was surprised to find several merchants already knew of her while she was introducing herself around town today. “I didn’t do too much introducing.”

Bartelt’s mother is Janet Kramer of Evansville. Her father Joe Bartelt and her stepmother Tracy both live in Huntingburg. Besides her sister Emily, she has two step-siblings, Sidney and Tyler Bartelt. She is engaged to Chad Wertman of Holland.

The article was corrected to indicated that Herron School of Art and Design is part of IUPUI not University of Indianapolis as originally written.