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A few minutes with: Donna Mills
Editor's note: This week, we spend a few minutes with Donna Mills, membership director of the Deer Park Chamber of Commerce.
InsideDP.com: Where are you from originally?
Donna Mills: I'm from Pasadena. I grew up there and stayed there until after I got married. From there, I traveled with my husband for many years.
What other places did you live?
The traveling was for my husband's company. We lived in Chester, South Carolina for a year and then we lived in Blacksburg, Virginia for a year. From there, we lived in South Texas for six or seven years. I worked for the King Ranch while we were there. Then we went to Wilmington, North Carolina for two years before coming home. We moved back here in 2002 because we wanted our son to go to Deer Park schools.
What was it like to get back home?
It was wonderful. I am very family-oriented and I wanted to be closer to my mother. I came from a large family, so it was good for me personally. Plus, we didn't have to deal with state taxes anymore. The cost of living, everything, was completely different. The goal was always to get back to Texas.
What have you been doing since you returned?
I've been busy. I work for the Chamber of Commerce and am on several community committees. I do a lot with the city, the school district. My husband is on the school board and is the board chairman for the chamber of commerce. We do a lot of dinners and mixers, football season, FFA and everything else my son does. I'm really blessed to be active in Deer Park and to have the friends and family that I do.
How was it that you got involved with the chamber?
I started volunteering with anything and everything they needed help with. They offered me a job and I said no. I retired and they asked me to come out of retirement. I finally did and once I got my feet wet, I wanted to do more. I became the membership director and am over the ambassadors. I love my job and being able to make the chamber grow and help our members. I love talking to our members and seeing how we can help them. That's what we are all about – helping out the small and large businesses.
What are some benefits from being a chamber member?
We have a lot of networking opportunities and your name gets out. People use the Chamber like the Better Business Bureau. If a business is not a member, we can't promote it. Nearly every business in Deer Park is a chamber member. When we get business calls, we recommend a chamber member. Everything we do, we do for the community.
As membership director, what are you goals?
My No. 1 goal is to help your business succeed after you become a member. That brings joy to me. I want everyone to succeed and so I do the best I can.
What do you like best about what you do?
It's the networking, meeting people and making people happy. If you succeed, then you are happy and I love seeing people succeed.