EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of features on young professionals in the Ashland business community. Part III was on Angela Ringler. Part II was on Jake Coffy. Part I was on Ashland Young Professionals.
ASHLAND – After working a desk job as office assistant at Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce on weekday mornings, Melanie Fitch heads to Kingston of Ashland to spend the afternoons meeting with patients as a social worker.
And Fitch doesn’t call it quits after her two jobs. She spends evenings and weekends serving as a 4-H adviser, chairing Savannah’s Bicentennial committee and helping launch the new Ashland Young Professionals group, where she is secretary. Much of her remaining spare time goes into planning her wedding, which comes just a month after the bicentennial.
How does Fitch get everything done?
It might be her penchant for list-making, she says. Ultimately, Fitch credits her roots in Ashland County’s agricultural community with building her strong work ethic, her sense of teamwork and her leadership skills.
Fitch grew up on a small farm outside Savannah, where she would get up early to feed the goats before school and work hard on her projects for the fair. She also helped out at her uncle’s farm, Fitch Pharm Farm. Meanwhile, she played soccer, softball and basketball, and she was active in 4-H, FFA, Farm Bureau and Grange.
“I say that’s where I learned to sit and listen,” Fitch said of Grange. “And it’s the one organization around that it doesn’t matter how old you are, there’s something for you.”
Those agricultural organizations gave Fitch her first experiences in public speaking, travelling and holding leadership positions. She also learned sign language through Grange, and now she enjoys teaching basic sign language to kids. She also loves helping kids break out of their shells by teaching them line dancing.
Fitch has spent countless hours as a camp counselor for Farm Bureau, Grange and FFA and she is an adviser for the Savannah Hardworkers 4-H Club.
After graduating from Crestview High School in 2010, Fitch went to The University of Akron to study business and organizational communication with a concentration in public relations and a minor in human resources.
There, she worked in residence life as a resident assistant and met her fiance, Brian McGunniess.
The agricultural community also helped Fitch land her first job out of college. It was while working at the fair with her father, who is an auctioneer, that she met her boss at Kingston, Stephanie Kozak. Fitch started at Kingston in 2015, and after transitioning from the marketing team to social work, she started at the Chamber in March 2017.
Fitch is at the helm of the Savannah Bicentennial committee, a job she says she took because no one else was interested.
“I kind of volunteered because there was a need, so I took on that challenge,” she said.
She and her team are actively fundraising for the June 22 to 24 bicentennial celebration. They’ve created a logo and made t-shirts, and they’re planning a Bluegrass concert, a parade, a touch-a-truck event and other kids’ activities, a 5K race, a pancake breakfast, an opening ceremony and a community church service.
Meanwhile, Fitch is busy planning her own wedding for July. She and McGunniess plan to wed at Ashland University’s Jack and Deb Miller Chapel.
Fitch also looks forward to helping launch and grow Ashland Young Professionals, which kicks off with its first event 5:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at Mitchell’s Orchard and Farm Market. The group can be found on Facebook as well as online at www.ashlandyoungprofessionals.com.
“It’ nice to be able to connect those young professionals so they’ll know they’re not the only ones,” Fitch said. “It’s important to remember it’s not just for business professionals, it’s for young people in the whole county. You don’t have to dress up and wear a suit every day. You can be that farmhand or work in that manufacturing job.
“It’s about connecting people and helping them grow.”
Ashland Young Professionals ready to make a splash
Coffy finds passion, purpose in Ashland
Ringler embraces leadership at Ashland’s Advantage Marketing
