3 minute read
HELLO SANTEE! Summer 2024
Year after year, summertime in Santee is known for many things: sweltering heats outdoors or ACs cranking inside (thank you, Allegiance Heating & Air), school campuses being on break or modified schedules, the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club providing a more robust offering of programs, the parks, Sportsplex USA and Santee Lakes being incredibly active… you name it. But often these activities relate directly back to families and the youth in our community. As my often-wise and always relevant friend Chris Romer recently said, “The importance of community simply cannot be overstated.” He doesn’t live here. In fact, he doesn’t even live nearby. But, he will be making a trip out to San Diego soon for his daughter to tour SDSU, and when he reached out to me to inquire about how they could get to know the area better while here. It made me sad to say, there wasn’t much off-campus to sing about by State unless he went into other neighboring cities.
Now back to our city: Home Sweet Home, Santee. If someone were asking how to get to know this area better, I could fill this entire magazine. Actually, I do… quarterly. That’s because Santee has a truly defined sense of community and I often think that is largely in part due to our businesses. Businesses that directly or indirectly, serve our youth. These businesses range from manufacturers (QCMI, RCP Block & Brick), to mom-and-pop shops (Coffee Corner, Al’s Sport Shop), big box stores (come on, Trader Joe’s - we are ready!), national retail chains (Macy’s, DSW, Walmart, Target), franchise restaurants (Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Sonic, Jack in the Box in three different corners), family owned eateries (Jimmy’s Family Restaurant, Omelette Factory, Janet’s Cafe, The Broken Yolk), service solutions of all kinds (Furology Pet Spaw, The UPS Store, TCB Embroidery), contracting providers (Raceway Electric & Solar, Alison Construction, Steve’s Plumbing), financial institutions (CalCoast, Mission Fed, SDCCU) and beyond. We consistently promote the idea to SHOP LOCAL and continue to allow these businesses to be the economic drivers that keep our city prosperous.
So now, back to activities and businesses often being connected by youth. My kids. Your kids. OUR kids. These children rely on us to give them the best life possible and set their future up to be better than the generation before. The Chamber values the importance of our kids and will be actively seeking more ways to connect via workforce development. We proudly offer scholarships to the highest academic achiever in the Santee School District, have created scholarships as incentives to Santana and West Hills graduates seeking trade school opportunities versus college, and will be hosting our Youth Business Fair in partnership with Momentum Tutoring and the Kiwanis Club this August. There’s so much more we want to dig our heels into because we know the future is bright - not just because it’s “Sunny Santee” but because our babies are beaming.
