The Okmulgee Lions Club welcomed Okmulgee Main Street Executive Director Melinda De Santo as their speaker Tuesday.

Melinda moved to Oklahoma June 1st and hit the ground running by starting her first day with Okmulgee Main Street on June 5. She is originally from Seattle, but was raised in Tacoma, Wash. What she misses most from home is her family and Mount Rainier to which she stated, “other mountains just don’t compare!”

De Santo calls herself a “Jade of all trades” and gave credit to her parents for always pushing her to do anything she sets her mind to. She took that literally and started in Human Services drug and alcohol recovery for youth until there were non-profit cuts. She then went into the Media Mass Communications field for five years and played for a Women’s Professional football team.

She is culinary trained and was a chef at one point but stopped due to carpal tunnel. Now she only cooks for her family. She’s been a traveling inn keeper and started a business in hotel management but stopped and took a year off to take care of her mother before she passed. She shared, “serving and loving people is one of my favorite things to do.”

De Santo needed something to throw herself into after losing her mom so the job with Main Street came at the right time. She believes in helping the community excel and be prosperous. She hopes to bring visitors in to experience the small-town charm we all grow and love.

Her previous community was 5,500-6,000 so Okmulgee has a larger community than she’s used to. She and her Pops moved here and have fallen in love with Oklahoma. She loves life, Jesus and is here to serve and wants what’s best for our community.