When Rebecca Cheshire graduated from Baldwin County High School in 1990, she couldn’t wait to get out and see the world.

Now, after earning three degrees and enjoying a successful career in England, Cheshire and her family have moved back to north Baldwin County, and she was recently hired as director of the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.

Returning to Baldwin County

“When I left, Spanish Fort was just woods,” she said. “It’s just amazing to me to see all the development. There wasn’t even a Walmart here when I left. I’m really happy to see the development, and I want to make sure to help develop north Baldwin.”

In her new role, Cheshire, who has more than 15 years of experience managing governmental, non-profit and commercial businesses, plans to help north Baldwin County attract businesses and families to the area.

With the impending development of the South Alabama Mega Site, along with the availability of other commercial properties in north Baldwin County, Cheshire said she couldn’t imagine a better time to have returned to the area.

“We want to attract people to come work here and to bring their families,” Cheshire said. “What we want to be sure to do is to put the image and the word across to people that this is a great place to live, and you can feel proud to live here.”

Cheshire said she is certainly proud of her Bay Minette roots.

As the daughter of hair stylist Juanita McMillan, Cheshire said she grew up knowing just about everyone in town. People were diligent in supporting her dreams then, and now she says she will be diligent in supporting the growth of the community.

“I started when I was really young trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, and different people in the community helped me with that,” she said. “It was really great to be able to have that kind of support and interest.”

In addition to her parents, the close-knit community feel of north Baldwin County drew Cheshire and her husband Nick away from London after the birth of their now 15-month-old son, Luke.

Getting experience in England

Cheshire met Nick, who is originally from England, in Athens, Ga. at a film festival. The couple dated for a year, married in 1998 and moved to England shortly afterward.

They lived in London for 13 years, where Cheshire climbed the ladder in the management of a nonprofit organization until she eventually became national director, helping draft national legislation that secured more than $4 million to develop businesses and benefit communities.

Working for the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce draws on all the skills Cheshire learned in London — developing strategic plans, managing finances, applying for grants and working with people to enhance their communities — it was a perfect fit.

“It was really lucky,” she said. “The timing of it — I didn’t see the job advertised anywhere; I just happened to run into someone who mentioned it to me.”

Cheshire said there are certainly challenges and hard work ahead, but she knows the community is ready to move forward.

“Our community is ready to break through the barrier of reputation that has been haunting us for a while,” she said. “People are really ready for that. Part of that process will be to help to enhance the pride in the area. Our priority is making sure people in this community feel good about it, and that anyone considering relocating here would feel good about it, too.”

Goals for the future

One of her first duties as director was planning the 30^th annual Christmas Fest in downtown Bay Minette, and Cheshire said she enjoyed visiting with people and learning even more about her hometown.

“There are so many people who really want to get involved in their community and put on events,” she said. “We really want to have a lot more events and more opportunities for people to come together as a community, and that will help demonstrate to other areas what we have to offer and hopefully get them to come and join us.”

Some of Cheshire’s immediate goals are for the Chamber to obtain 501(c)(3) status in order to receive more grants, creating a volunteer program, redesigning the Chamber’s website and initiating a workshop for people who are considering starting a small business.

The workshop would not only help new entrepreneurs find out how to get started and stay in business, but it would also connect them to the owners of vacant commercial properties. Cheshire hopes to see vacant buildings around the area start filling up in 2013.

“If we have a program here that is trying to spark people’s interest and get them involved and wanting to start their own business, we can almost play matchmaker,” she said.

Encouraging local small business development will go a long way in attracting larger companies and their employees, Cheshire said.

“If you are going to come live here, you want to make sure you’ve got amenities, and there are lots of things we can do more of,” she said. “So we want to ensure that we’re identifying what businesses are needing in different areas and working to have a strategy for attracting those companies.”