Chamber Chief Toni Castro Steps Down After 32 Years, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS Chamber Chief Toni Castro Steps Down After 32 Years

By Jondi Gumz

She started the children’s Hal- loween costume parade in Capitola Village in 1989, and it’s become a tradition.

The next year, she started the Easter egg hunt on Capitola Beach — an eggstravaganza with 5,000 eggs for children to find.

Then she started something original: Persuading woodie surfwagon owner Rowland Baker to be Surfin’ Santa, paddling his outrigger canoe to Capitola Beach to listen to children share their Christmas lists. Surfer Frosty Hesson does it now, and the event has gotten coverage on NBC.

And she built up the nascent Capitola Art & Wine Festival from a couple of wineries and a couple of artists and food vendors into the chamber’s biggest fund- raiser, with 160 artists, 22 wineries, 20 food vendors and 15 entertainment groups — admission free — attracting large crowds to the Esplanade overlooking Monterey Bay.

Now, after 32 years, on March 1 Toni Castro will be stepping down as executive director of the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce and retiring at age 67.

Today, job-hopping is common, but Castro was never tempted to move on.

“It’s fun. I’m putting on fun activities for people,” she said. “I never got tired of it.”

••• R unning the chamber was Castro’s second career.

The Santa Cruz native worked in banking first, joining County Bank as a teller and working her way up over 15 years to vice president in charge of marketing.

When County Bank was acquired by Pacific Western Bank, she was tapped for multiple task forces to integrate the two operations — an experience that led to burnout.

At the time, she had been president of the chamber for two years and from her volunteer work, was familiar with the organization.

The chamber had a part-time executive director who went on maternity leave with no plans to return.

“I applied to make it a full-time position,” Castro said. “The board hired me.”

3x5 cards T he year was 1988. Her office consisted of a corner inside the Capitola His- torical Museum, with a desk, a phone, a filing cabinet and the names of members written on 3x5 cards.

Castro said one volunteer took the cards with her when she moved to Oregon so she had to track down the members herself.

When she wanted to invest in modern office technology, like a fax machine, she got pushback at first but she gradually got better equipment, including a computer, and a second staffer for the office, which then moved to the garage by Jones & Bones. In 1997, CHECK. The chamber moved in 1997 to the Plum Garden complex, where there’s room for the staff of three and to store equipment for special events. In 1996, Castro launched the Women on Waves surf contest with the West Wind Surf Club and ran it for eight years until Sally Smith and then Anna Macken took over. Local surfer Aylana Zanville hopes to bring it back later this year.

Castro helped birth multiple other events, the Kite Classic, the Vintage Motor- cycle Show, and the Classic Car Show.

“Castro Retires” page 14 Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz Toni Castro outside the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce office.