{"id":9927,"date":"2016-12-09T00:36:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T05:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=9927"},"modified":"2016-12-09T01:59:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T06:59:51","slug":"a-bittersweet-evening-brick-chamber-celebrates-60-years-but-bids-farewell-to-its-longtime-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/12\/a-bittersweet-evening-brick-chamber-celebrates-60-years-but-bids-farewell-to-its-longtime-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bittersweet Evening: Brick Chamber Celebrates 60 Years, But Bids Farewell to Its Longtime Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michelle<\/a>

Michelle Eventoff receives proclamations from Assemblyman David Wolfe and Mayor John Ducey. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick\u2019s business community bid farewell Thursday night to the woman who was its leader for a quarter-century.<\/p>\n

After serving as its executive director for 25 of 60 years, Michelle Eventoff recently announced her retirement from the Chamber of Commerce and said her goodbyes Thursday night at a gala event thrown in her honor.<\/p>\n

The formal event brought back dozens of past chamber presidents, many of whom shared stories about how the organization helped their business and introduced them to lifelong friends. The friend to all was Eventoff, whose vision helped transform the Brick chamber into one of the state\u2019s largest, as well as one of the most generous, having awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to township students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a pleasure it has been to work with so many fine, dedicated and wonderful people,\u201d Eventoff said. \u201cWe shared a lot during that time, and one of my few regrets is that I won\u2019t have this opportunity anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Brick Chamber of Commerce\u2019s 60th anniversary gala. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Brick Chamber of Commerce\u2019s 60th anniversary gala. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Eventoff received proclamations from state Assemblyman David Wolfe and Mayor John Ducey, who were both on hand. Saturday was declared \u201cMichelle Eventoff Day\u201d in Brick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to play a part in weaving the fabric of our community,\u201d Eventoff said, praising the 27 chamber presidents she worked with during her tenure as executive director. She saved the most praise for Jeff Bevacqua, owner of Joe\u2019s Service Center on Mantoloking Road, who served as chamber president this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff, number 27 is a terrific person to close out my tenure,\u201d she said. \u201cJeff is one of the nicest people I have ever known, down to Earth, and he\u2019s smart and terrific business person. He gets a joke even when it\u2019s not obvious, and always laughs out loud. I love that about him. He genuinely cares about people from his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s truly been one of the highlights of my professional career,\u201d said chamber executive board member Richard Lau, speaking of his time working with Eventoff.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Brick Chamber of Commerce\u2019s 60th anniversary gala. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Other spoke of how Eventoff pulled the business community together after Superstorm Sandy and helped with charitable efforts, and how her leadership helped create the chamber\u2019s educational foundation.<\/p>\n

A new executive director,\u00a0Jessica Burrell, has been hired to lead the chamber, officials said. Cindy\u00a0Mirabella will serve as president in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the phrases that I often use to describe what the Chamber of Commerce does best is that we create synergy,\u201d Eventoff said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ve always enjoyed most: watching what happens when we\u2019ve brought people and groups together.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick\u2019s business community bid farewell Thursday night to the woman who was its leader for a quarter-century. After serving as its executive director for 25 of 60 years, Michelle Eventoff recently announced her retirement from the Chamber of Commerce and said her goodbyes Thursday night at a gala event thrown in her honor. The formal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1649],"tags":[2645,24,608,376,2610],"class_list":["post-9927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-business","tag-60th-anniversary","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-brick-township-chamber-of-commerce","tag-chamber-of-commerce","tag-michelle-eventoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/c602.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2A7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}