Farewell, Deidre! Welcome, Marissa!

Olney Chamber gets new leadership

Marissa Pink spent the past few weeks shadowing Olney Chamber of Commerce Director Deidre Brown as a prelude to stepping into the role on July 1. Although she has visited Olney often over the years to visit her best friend Katie Carls, the Wichita Falls native said the experience has been eye-opening.

“There is just so much going on in Olney right now, I’ve just got to learn the town,” she said. “I realize, like a lot of outsiders ,there are a lot of hidden gems that just need to be explored.”

Ms. Pink is not exactly an outsider. In addition to her long standing friendship with Ms. Carls, her grandmother, Anita Joyce Love, and great-grandmother, Martha “Cutie” Neas Davis, were Olney natives and are buried in Olney’s Restland Cemetery, she said.

Ms. Pink said she plans to move to Olney in the not-toodistant future.

Ms. Pink said she developed a love for community service while working in the Wichita County judicial system in a deferred adjudication program for teen offenders called Teen Court. “It is a really great program,” she said. “Rather than pay the fine and have that [violation] stay on their records they could go through our program. Do some community service, sit on the jury, learn some valuable life lessons and it was removed from their record.”

She also worked at a dental supply company in Wichita Falls.

Ms. Brown, who helmed the Chamber for two-anda- half years, heads to the Metroplex to pursue a career in event planning. She helped conceive and roll out the Olney in America celebration, and started the Chamber’s Quarterly Lunches and Networking Nights.