BELFAST, Maine — Karen Brezsnyak just about bubbles over when she talks about Belfast, the community to which the former Montreal cosmetology teacher retired five years ago.
That kind of enthusiasm is a good trait for the brand-new director of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce to have.
“When we came here it was just an immediate falling in love,” she said Thursday. “The view from the [Route 1] bridge left me breathless. ‘That’s my new home.’”
Brezsnyak, 60, started volunteering at the Chamber’s downtown office as soon as she and her husband, Chuck Poirier, moved to Maine. Three years ago, she began working there, and was office manager under Dorothy Havey, who left the organization recently after working there for 14 months.
There has been turnover in the position in recent years, according to Paul Doody, outgoing president of the organization’s board of directors. He figured there had been three different directors in the last five years or so.
That includes a lean stretch of time when the board decided it couldn’t afford an executive director at all, he said.
“Then we got ourselves back into a very good financial position,” he said. “I think Karen’s going to be able to step in and keep everything going with the momentum we have.”
Brezsnyak said she ended up in Maine because Poirier, a physical education teacher at the Montreal school where she taught, is originally from Waterville. When the couple retired, they figured they wanted to do something different.
“If you’re from Maine, you’re always from Maine. I asked him if he wanted to go back. Of course, he was excited like a kid in a candy shop,” she said. “He said, ‘Find a place.’”
She wanted to live near the water and found Belfast while looking at houses online. When they moved to the city, Poirier went to the Chamber of Commerce office to get information about their new community, and decided he wanted to volunteer. Brezsnyak put her name on the volunteer list, too, and began to spend time every week helping tourists and others who came to the office.
“It was the best way. You saturate yourself with the information. It gets you out meeting people,” she said.
As director, Brezsnyak said that she is eager to promote the region and the 360 business members who are part of the chamber of commerce.
“Obviously, I want to make sure the product I’m offering the business community is the best it can be,” she said. “The phrase we’re using is ‘your Chamber, working for you.’”