“If I’m privileged to live in this town, I need to give back,” says Michele Schneider, the director of business development for the Goleta Chamber of Commerce. We are talking over drinks at the entirely occasion-appropriate Goodbar at The Goodland. Michele is one of the most effervescent people I’ve ever met — and particularly so about anything having to do with Goleta. “Goleta is a hidden gem,” she tells me. “For the longest time, people would come to Santa Barbara and then stumble upon Goleta.” If I weren’t already a property owner in Goleta, I would want to become one after spending time with the ultimate ambassador of this community.
Born and raised in Santa Barbara, Schneider attended San Marcos, and she’s still close with all of her high school friends. Michele had been volunteering for the Lemon Festival and the Chamber for seven years before being hired as a full-time member of the staff. Three years ago, she won Goleta’s Finest Volunteer of the Year Award. The Goleta Lemon Festival — which takes place on September 16-17 at Girsh Park — is one of the largest events in our area where nonprofits can have booths and raise funds. “My father — Richard Schneider — was in charge of fundraising for the Edelweiss Choir,” Michele recalls, “and one of their biggest fundraisers was the Goleta Lemon Festival.” As a youngster, Michele would help her father sell German sausages at the fest. Not many people know that the Goleta Chamber puts on the Lemon Festival. Michele notes that the very few chambers of commerce put on their own festivals because they’re such huge undertakings. Ever mindful of the people who support her work, Michele declares, “we couldn’t do it without our volunteers!”
Michele is one of the most interesting people I’ve met doing this column. She’s a single mom by choice, and after five years — and six attempts at in-vitro fertilization — she gave birth to Hunter, who is now 2 and a half years old. Serendipitously, this year Hunter’s been deemed the “Lemon Prince” of the Festival. “I’ve now become a person that people come to for advice if they want to have a child on their own,” she shares with me. “I’ve become a support to anyone who is a single parent.”