For the past 20 years, Vicki Gardner has worked diligently to showcase what is great about Smith Mountain Lake and is likely due some credit to its massive growth during that time.
Gardner took the position of executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2002. It was a job she only expected to take for a few months, but would last nearly two decades. Those years would be filled with several triumphs as well as hardships.
Originally from Cayuga Lake in New York, Gardner started her career as a cosmetologist. At the young age of 18, she purchased a beauty salon and successfully ran the business for years.
Gardner admits that, at the time, she didn’t even question if she would succeed. “When I was young, it never occurred to me that I could fail,” she said.
A few years later she married Tim Gardner and the two moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later to Houston, Texas. One of her jobs during that time was as an employment counselor.
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With the collapse of the oil market in the 1980s, jobs in Houston started drying up and they began looking elsewhere for opportunities. Gardner recalled going to a library and researching places with a lake like where she grew up as well as mountains and a good education system for their children.
“Smith Mountain Lake made the list,” Gardner said. “Then we got here and just fell in love.”
Gardner’s career in marketing blossomed when she arrived at Smith Mountain Lake. She was first hired as marketing director for Stone Manor Golf Course. She later took a job as marketing director for Williams Supply in Roanoke before eventually taking the position as the national marketing director for a chain of steakhouses.
The national marketing director job involved a lot of traveling, according to Gardner. Some mornings she would have to wake up as early as 3 a.m. to make a flight for work. The long hours led her to look at other options that would keep her closer to home.
It was around that time that Gardner heard of an opening at the SML Regional Chamber of Commerce. She didn’t even consider taking the job at first. It was a significant pay cut from the six-figure salary of her previous job.
Despite her apprehension, Gardner said she looked into the chamber and saw it was struggling and in need of help. She decided to take the job on for six months to help get it back on track.
“Once I was there, I just loved it,” Gardner said.
Gardner’s first day as executive director was Aug. 26, 2002. The date has a special significance which marked other major milestones in her life. It was also the same date in 2015 when she was seriously injured in a shooting at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta that took the lives of WDBJ journalists Adam Ward and Alison Parker. In 2019, it was that date that marked her last day as executive director for the chamber.
During her time at the chamber, Gardner worked to bring in even more events to showcase Smith Mountain Lake. She started the lake’s popular chili festival which helped to extend the tourist season into November. She also created the annual business expo that showcased lake businesses just before the start of the tourist season in early May.
In her first three years, Gardner was able to increase chamber membership from 200 to 625. That number increased to well over 800 members in the following years until the recession hit following the housing market crash in 2008.
Smith Mountain Lake took a significant hit during the recession with several local businesses closing their doors. During that time, Gardner continued to move the chamber and the community forward.
As the lake community was climbing out of the recession in 2012, Gardner was able to start one of the lake’s most popular events. Pirate Days was an idea Gardner originally brought to local businesses after hosting pirate-themed weekends at her own home for several years.
Pirate Days started on the dock of Gardner’s home in Goodview. It began as a fun weekend Gardner and her husband planned with their grandchildren.
While it was never a chamber-sponsored event, Gardner took the idea to several businesses as something to bring in visitors in late July following the rush of Independence Day. It took some time for the new event to take hold, but in recent years it has become one of the lake’s most popular events spreading to businesses as well as family docks.
“It just hasn’t stopped growing,” Gardner said. Several area businesses recently reported that they now see the most traffic on the third weekend of July, traditionally Pirate Days weekend.
Another project for Gardner was to literally put Smith Mountain Lake on the map at the Virginia Tourism Council. The council had the lake divided into three regions. Gardner said in maps of each of the regions, the lake looked like a small river since only a partial section was shown.
After years of pushing in Richmond, in 2015 Gardner was finally able to move Smith Mountain Lake into one region. The Virginia Tourism Council’s new region was named Virginia Mountains which fully showcased the lake.
It was also in 2015 that Gardner began her involvement with the long-proposed Smith Mountain Lake Center — a community space for education, arts, entertainment, private events, business and tourism. She had an initial meeting on the center on Aug. 25 of that year, just a day before the tragic shooting that delayed plans, but became a point of support during her recovery.
Thousands were donated to Gardner to help her during her recovery following the shooting. She created the Vicki’s Vision fund to take those donations to use toward the eventual creation of the SML Center.
While Gardner returned to the chamber in late 2015, she said injuries sustained in the shooting prevented her from working at the same level she did previously. She admitted that she likely returned too early, hiding an ostomy bag and several bandages under her clothing during that time as her body recovered.
Gardner was able to continue working for a few more years, but decided to step down in on Aug. 26, 2019. The date marked exactly 17 years as executive director.
While she has retired from the chamber, Gardner has not stopped promoting Smith Mountain Lake. She recently took the position of president of the SML Center Inc. She spends much of her free time working toward the organization’s goal to create a multipurpose center for the lake community.
During her time as president, the organization has received hundreds of thousands in donations. The Grand Home Furnishings building in Westlake has also been named as a possible site of the center. Donations are expected to go toward the purchase of the building and designing it to the community’s needs.
Gardner admits work with SML Center Inc. has kept her busy in recent months, but she tries to find time pursuing her other hobbies such as gardening, painting and even writing. She is currently working on a novel on her experiences following the 2015 shooting.
Through it all, Gardner plans to continue promoting her home and her community at Smith Mountain Lake.
