It is always nice to hear about our own Community Club. Heather Dunn described her work and her life in her own words.
Heather Dunn, 41, was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
“I only lived there for two weeks,” she said with a laugh. “My parents were there on a trip. We then made a 1,000-mile trip to Plant City, FL., which is where we had a home when not traveling.”
As the only child of parents who were missionaries, Heather Dunn has lived a lot of places across the United States. Now grown with a family of her own, she calls Fairfield Bay home. As of March 1, she is the executive director of the Fairfield Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. “Heather is a joy to work with and will help the chamber and city move to the next level,” said Jack Weeks, president of the chamber’s board of directors.
Her parents, Keith and Dwin Barron, retired to Fairfield Bay, although they still make mission trips often. “We followed them here about three years ago,” Dunn said. “We love it here.” Dunn and her husband, Casey, have been married for 17 years. Casey Dunn is from Ocala, FL., and works for F.L. Davis Ace Building Center in Greers Ferry. Dunn is the mother of two children — son, Blain Lassiter, 24, is living in Beijing, China, and daughter, Alexus Dunn, 10, attends Shirley Elementary School.
She said that as a child, she and her parents visited the Fairfield Bay area every year for at least 35 years.“My parents always wanted to retire here,” she said, “so when the opportunity came for us to move here, we took it.” Dunn said that because her parents moved so frequently, she was home-schooled by her mother. “I couldn’t go to a regular school because we might not stay in one place more than two or three weeks.” So my mother taught me. There were always young people in the communities where my father ministered. I would always attach myself to them. But for the most part, I was raised around adults. I guess that’s why I relate with adults better.”
Dunn has worked for several nonprofit organizations in the past, developing some of the same skills she will utilize as the new chamber of commerce executive director. “I’ve worked with community development, and special-events planning,” she said She is working on a degree in computer science through online courses offered by Webster University and hopes that will help with her website endeavor.
“I’m working closely with the Fairfield Bay Community Club and the Fairfield Bay Conference and Visitor Center boards to try to integrate with them and set some goals for the community,” she said. “We are a resort community of about 3,000. We have the Wyndham timeshare community here also, and we have a lot of traffic with them.”
“My goal for the chamber of commerce is to create a relationship with the businesses and for all businesses to be able to utilize each other’s strengths,” Dunn said. “I hope we can use synergy, teamwork, to create something more for all of the businesses and communities.
We have members from Mountain View, Heber Springs, Greers Ferry, Clinton and Shirley, just to mention a few.
Dunn said the chamber’s website gets an annual 4 million hits a year.
Dunn said one way for business owners to get to know each other is to attend the quarterly Business After Hours event that is held at various businesses. It’s a great way for your business to excel and let all our members know what you have to offer.”
In addition to her work with the chamber, Dunn is active in the nonprofit organization Faith Based Bread Inc. She serves as vice president of the organization, and her father is its president. “We do community work and mostly work with churches and food banks,” she said. “We serve in the States, as well as places such as Trinidad, the Dominican Republic and Africa.
“We are growing here in Fairfield Bay,” Dunn said. “We have had several new restaurants and many new business opportunities in our City square. We invite everyone to take a look at our community.”
“Come grow with us”