By Mark Schmerling

Janet Sciacca, executive director of the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce, began qualifying early for that position. Creativity, resiliency, a strong work ethic, a passion for new things, and continuous self-improvement are all qualities that she developed from life’s many lessons, and that she embodies whenever she is representing the chamber to the community.

As a young girl growing up in suburban Syracuse, N.Y., in a neighborhood filled with children, she created small carnivals, and her family hosted ice-skating parties. The rink was created when her dad shoveled snow off a section of the back yard, and applied water, which quickly froze.

“I come from a very creative family,” Sciacca noted. “My parents always encouraged us in our creative endeavors.”

The middle sister of five — she has no brothers — Sciacca “liked kids from a very young age.” In one early project, she volunteered to teach boys at her elementary school to sew.

Though Sciacca’s parents divorced when she was eight, both her parents taught her many valuable lessons. In the late 1950s, her dad started the first jazz radio station in Syracuse. He took her to jazz clubs sometimes, and instilled a strong sense of fairness and equality for everyone. Other trips with her dad were to museums, state parks and movies.

When Sciacca’s parents split, her mom worked two jobs to provide for the children. She also provided this advice, Sciacca remembered: ‘If you don’t know what to do, then wait, until you do know.’

Her father told her, ‘Whatever you decide to do, do it to the best of your abilities,’ and that advice remained with her. She also believes that she has a good work ethic, and sense of right and wrong.

Sciacca left Syracuse twice, the first time at 18, to travel to California with her boyfriend.

“Traveling the country was a big thing. All my friends were doing it,” she remembered. An avid reader, she learned of many places, and wanted to experience it herself.

“The urge to get out and travel did not seem like a ridiculous thing to do,” she said.

Though she spent just five months in Berkeley, Sciacca enjoyed memorable experiences.

“It was just a fun place to be,” she recalled, and much different than Syracuse. But, when she parted ways with her boyfriend, Sciacca returned to Syracuse.

“I thought about college,” she said, “but my brain wasn’t there. I had volunteered in the health care and education fields, trying to decide, but I didn’t feel the right fit.” Instead, she got a job, improved her typing, and learned speed-writing.

Sciacca was athletic, competing in track and field, and ballet dancing for about ten years.

“I wouldn’t recommend doing the two together,” she advised. “Injuries from track ultimately dashed my dreams of pursuing a dancing career.”

Always outgoing, Sciacca said she loved performing on stage.

“A ten-speed bike was my prized possession,” Sciacca recalled. On it, she rode nearly everywhere around Syracuse.

In her early 20s, Sciacca developed a case of mononucleosis, a fairly common ailment at the time. Physically out of sorts, she visited her sister in Florida, following medical advice to spend more time in a warm climate. In a month, she was well again.

Back to Syracuse she returned, but not for long. Since she loved Florida’s warm climate, she returned there and landed a job at a European Health Spa in West Palm Beach.

It was in Florida where she met her first husband, whose parents lived in Campobello. She decided ultimately that Florida was both “too hot and too flat” so Sciacca and her husband moved to Campobello in 1981, choosing it over Syracuse. But before they moved to the Foothills, Sciacca and her husband bought a van and traveled all around the country, visiting most states. At European Health Spa in Florida, she had met wealthy individuals who owned homes and vacation homes around the country. Through their generosity, Sciacca and her husband were often able to stay, usually with their hosts, in their homes around the country, for free.

“It was a pretty awesome trip,” she recollected. But, of this area, Sciacca gushed, “I love it.”

Possessing good office skills, Sciacca, who had also worked at a Merrill Lynch brokerage in Palm Beach, was hired by a brokerage in Greenville, then at Merrill Lynch offices in Greenville and Spartanburg.

“I was working my way up into leadership positions,” Sciacca noted. “I always got the job of working for the top producer or office manager.”

“I knew I was good with people,” said Sciacca, who also had read many self-help books.

“I like to search for the truth in things. I don’t want to be wrong,” she admitted. “I was always into the self-help things, to be the best that I could be.”

She was also becoming more and more qualified for her position as executive director of the Carolina Foothills Chamber, a position she has held for the past fifteen years.

After the birth of her third child, Sciacca went back to work, part-time, in a physician’s office for six months. She then worked at the non-profit foundation office for Mary Black Hospital.

There, she noted, “We did a couple of special events.”

Foundation and non-profit work agreed with Sciacca. After working for a brokerage firm in Charlotte  — she and her husband had moved there when he found a job at a YMCA — she found several temporary jobs in this area, including one with the Spartanburg County Health Department, and then joined a community organization, the Coalition for Better Health.

“Health education was interesting,” she said. “I got to work with the public.”

In 1995, Sciacca got a job with the American Cancer Society, and ran many events, including the annual Relays for Life.

When that position ended in 1997, she got a job with Polk County Community Foundation. Her marriage broke up then, but she tried to keep the divorce from being hard on her own children. She held on to her job through a few stressful years.

“My mother is an extremely strong woman,” Sciacca said, “and instilled that quality in her children.”

At that time, Sciacca recalled, the former director of the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce was a friend of hers. Her friend was leaving the position, and recommended that Sciacca apply.

While at Polk County Community Foundation, Sciacca had joined the local Kiwanis Club, and became involved in local events, met many individuals in the community. Her job at PCCF also helped her meet many interesting locals.

Some of those she met were on the Foothills Chamber board. Sciacca decided that she had a good chance to be hired as chamber director, and so she applied. She was hired as director in December 1999.

After fifteen years, she and the part-time special events coordinator are the only staff.

“It’s a small chamber,” she said. “We try to do everything that chambers do, but with less staff. We promote the area. Chambers are basically places to go to get information about the community.” This small chamber has 350 members.

Sciacca noted that chambers of commerce were initially created in Europe about four hundred years ago, the concept eventually being brought to America. Business membership in the local chamber is mandatory in many countries, Sciacca noted, but it is not required in America.

Sciacca noted that most people know that the local chamber is the place to call for information on most anything — be it hiking, bicycling, or any type of service, or local specialty shops.

“When they don’t know who to call, they call the chamber. If we don’t know it (the answer to a caller’s inquiry), we take their number, find out, and call them back. We promote the area.”

Can’t most people find information on the Internet?

No, said Sciacca. This is largely a retirement area, and many still don’t use a computer, or don’t know how to navigate the Internet. Those folks, she said, do things the way they’ve always done it.

“They look in the phone book.”

Chamber funding comes from business memberships and from special events. This chamber’s biggest event is the annual Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival, held at Harmon Field, attracting thousands of visitors.

In 1998, while employed by PCCF, Sciacca volunteered at the festival.

“That was a blast,” was her impression.

“This job was my salvation,” Sciacca remarked. “I’m so thankful for that, the way it worked out.”

A big boost, for the goal-oriented Sciacca was joining Toastmasters some years back, making her feel more confident as a public speaker.

Near the end of her marriage, Sciacca took a personality test, to learn where her strengths could take her. At the chamber, she learned that she has been “in the right job. I live this job.”

She is also in the right marriage.

In 2007, she said, “I met the love of my life,” and married the next year. “I never knew I could be so happy.”

At the chamber, she’s continually learning, “Why do people (business owners) do what they do? What makes them passionate about what they do? I can try to help people be more successful. That’s what the chamber does. That has been very rewarding.”

As director of the Carolina Foothills Chamber is part of the Western North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Executives, in 26 WNC counties. Directors from the various chambers share ideas about what works and what doesn’t.

“It’s a great support group of my peers,” Sciacca said. “You’re 24/7 with this job. Wherever I am, I represent the chamber.”