Brenda Newburn is a well-known, lifelong member of the Cape Girardeau community. She was born and raised here, attended Southeast Missouri State University and has worked for various companies in the city during her life. She currently works as the executive director at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, serves as a Chamber of Commerce ambassador and is an avid Redhawks fan.
What is your connection to Cape Girardeau?
Cape Girardeau is home, so I've been here all my life, but I'm not going to tell you my age. This is home for me. I went to Central, graduated from Central High School, went to SEMO and then I moved to California for about a year, moved to Long Beach, California, then came back to Cape and I've been here ever since. It's home.
What did you study in school?
I went to school for accounting, business was my major and accounting. I wanted to be a secretary, and people ask, "And you went to college to do that?" So I had to have an accounting background because I was going to be in business administration. And while I was in Long Beach I worked for a youth center for handicapped children. It was a state-run family hospital.
That experience was humbling and made you appreciate your ability to use your limbs. Some of the children in there didn't have the ability to walk, some had never unfolded their legs, for example. One little boy, I remember, he could outrun you with just his hands. It was really humbling. It made you realize how blessed you are for family to visit, because a lot of those children did not get visits, and so, it was a great experience but at the same time a very heart-wrenching experience.
And then you came back to Southeast Missouri. What did you do from there?
My first job was I was a secretary for the gentlemen that built the Howard Johnsons here, which are no longer here anymore. I worked in that industry and then I went to Procter & Gamble and worked there for 26 years, then I retired and found out that I couldn't retire, I was too young for that. So I started working for the Convention and Visitors Bureau as a salesperson, left here, went to the Holiday Inn, did sales, until now I'm back here, so it feels like coming back home.
What do you do in your current role as executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau?
What I do here, now in this role as the executive director, I am actually just responsible for making sure that we have a program that's going to entice people and get people to come visit us, to come and stay in Cape Girardeau. So my job is really to get ads out, promote it, be visible to visitors. We have two staff members who actually do, one does PR and public advertising. Another one goes to local shows and expos across the country to try and represent us and get people to come here.
Can you talk about your role with the Chamber of Commerce?
My role with the Chamber, I'm a Chamber ambassador, of course we are under the umbrella of the Chamber, so that is who I report to. My direct supervisor is at the Chamber, that's John Mehner. My role there is to make sure I get out and know the community, know what's in the community. Let them know that we have the Convention and Visitors Bureau here, that we can get items, too, if they have guests coming in we can represent, we can get them brochures, we can show them what to do, help them find entertainment or food or just whatever it is they may need to make their experience great so they'll come back. You know, the different attractions that we have, we need to represent all of that. The hotel accommodations, the hospitality, we need to represent that group so that everyone will know -- come stay, you'll have a great experience here.
I also heard you go to every Redhawks game?
Yes, I do! I am a die-hard Redhawks woman. Yes, I love the Redhawks. It is exciting to see how they're getting the stands filled for the women's games because in the past when I would go to the women's games people wouldn't start coming in until the game was almost over, and now it's so exciting to see the crowd and the cheering. And I'll always be sitting way up, so I can have it to myself, I don't usually have anyone with me because I don't want to talk during the game, I want to take pictures and look at the game.
I love football too, and I stay for the men's games, but I'm really into the women's basketball. I'm really into watching them develop and grow, and I got a chance to meet Coach [Rekha] Patterson -- I call her Coach P -- and she's just great, so I'm out trying to support her, too. But yeah, I go to all the games, football too. Go Redhawks football!
Who have been your greatest role models in life?
My mother. My mother is my role model and I feel like my mother and Jesus. Those are my role models. I'll never be as good as God is to me, so I always have to measure up to what the standard is that he would have me do. But my mother, I watched her go through life and never let me feel like I couldn't do anything or have anything. She always made me believe in myself and to stand tall and make her proud, and so that's my role model. I watched her battle cancer, too, and she died within four months of us finding out, and I watched that bravery and never just crumbling. So she's a leader in my life.
What do you think it takes to be a leader?
Knowing that you can inspire people and letting other people grow. I think that's what it takes. As a leader, you have to know that if someone has a good idea, you don't take it personally like, "It's got to be my idea," you know? I think leadership is where you look at the potential in other people that are around you and you help that come out in them.
Do you have any life advice for students or young adults?
Be all that you can be, and be dedicated. I think you have to be willing to sacrifice personal time and you have to be willing to go for it, and you have to be able to fall and get back up.
