ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Leininger Wants Chamber To Promote Archbold, Help Business Grow


Rhonda Leininger

Rhonda Leininger

Rhonda Leininger, director of the Archbold Area Chamber of Commerce since July 5, is clear about what she doesn’t like.

“If there is one thing that really makes me sad is to go through a small town and see all these empty storefronts, and the windows are dirty and no one’s taking care of it. That’s so sad. That breaks my heart,” she said.

So how can the Archbold Area Chamber of Commerce help prevent stores from turning into empty storefronts? How can the chamber help?

“Certainly advertising, and especially now with social media,” she said.

“A lot of times it’s hard to get onto each person’s website.

“Here at the chamber, what I would like to do is start doing advertising for them (local businesses) when they have sales going on and different things like that, so you can just get on the Archbold Chamber of Commerce website.

“It will be kind of a onestop shop there at our website or on our Facebook page where you can see what’s going on.”

Leininger said she sees the job as a combination of marketing, promotion, and customer service.

“And certainly, being a great representative of Archbold, and what a great little village this is, singing the praises of Archbold and these amazing merchants we have in town– that’s glorious to me,” she said.

“I see the chamber as being a promoter of everything that Archbold is, to bring people into our town and to be able to help these businesses grow.”

“Most of the time, I would think the chamber should just be out and about, really introducing Archbold to not only the people that live here in town… it’s just introducing all these really great things that’s happening in Archbold.”

She said she wants the chamber to be more recognized.

“Most people don’t even know what the chamber does,” she said.

“So what I would like it to be is more recognized as that entity here in Archbold… that brings the recognition to this town, and it does bring interest.”

She said she wants Archbold to become a more personal town, “a more ‘I want to go to Archbold, I want to see what’s going on. They’ve got this going on at Sauder Village, so let’s go into town and… eat at Mom’s Diner,’ and different things like that.

“But people out there aren’t going to know that because they may not get that radio station in their town.

“So if they’re looking on social media, that is the chamber helping this place to be more recognized as getting the information and the awesomeness of what Archbold is” out to people.

Credentials

Rhonda (Bertram) Leininger is originally from Wheeling, W. Va. She came to northwest Ohio as a child when her dad got a job in Defiance.

A 1984 Defiance High School graduate, she married Don Leininger soon after graduation and came to live in Archbold.

She has had several jobs, including sales at Rupp Furniture, where she met people from both Archbold and out of town.

One time, a woman from Bucyrus was visiting Archbold for the first time.

“She said, ‘This is a phenomenon. You have all these great stores here. You have a variety of stores,’” Leininger said.

“She loved the diversity of Archbold, and the fact that you go through this town, you want to stop. You want to see what’s going on.”

Leininger also worked at Community Health Professionals, where she was involved in marketing, fund-raising, and event planning– all skills she can use with the chamber.

At CHP, she had offices in Defiance and Paulding, and traveled a lot. Some months, she’d put more than 1,000 miles on her car.

“Now, I’m three minutes from work…It feels like being back home again,” she said.

Focus

Leininger said her focus is being out in the community.

“I want to see how people’s businesses are going. I want to see what the chamber can do to help boost their sales,” she said.

“I want to get to know the people here, both personally and professionally.

“I want to reach out and just really focus on helping them to build their businesses.

“To be able to, you know, not have these stores shutting down.”