By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Stepping up to the podium last month at the Barn Theatre at Winthrop in Riverview, Joe Eletto said it had been almost 21 years “in this very spot that I joined the chamber.”
As co-founder of the Riverview chamber’s Military Affairs Committee, Eletto helps to determine each meeting’s military honoree, which in April was awarded to 26-year Army career veteran, and Riverview resident, James “Jimmie” Hines.
His career ended as a Sgt. 1st Class with the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in 2021, which took him to Bosnia, Kuwait and Djibouti. “These deployments,” Hines said, “supporting operations like SFOR, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, and CJTF-HOA, shaped my commitment to service.”
Linda Chion Kenney photos
From left, Richard Rohde, James Hines and Joe Eletto, at the April chamber luncheon.
In a departure from the norm, another award was issued at the luncheon in April for the Riverview chamber, now known as the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce. Eletto said he was honored to recognize, with a decorated and humorously whimsical Florida license plate, his dear friend, fellow Veteran and Military Affairs Committee co-founder, Rich Rohde.
A U.S. Air Force Veteran and Apollo Beach resident, who lived also in Riverview and Brandon, Rohde is set to move to South Carolina after 25 years as a chamber member.
“Rich is a fixture with this chamber,” Eletto said. “He’s done so much and he’s a big loss to the chamber and I hate that he’s moving.”
Eletto is a self-described Vietnam-era Veteran, which means, “I served during the war, but I did not get sent there,” Eletto said. “Rich, however, was a forward observer, which means he was on the ground calling out coordinates for planes to bomb the enemy. He was in the thick of it. He was in the woods, in the jungle with an antenna, which is to say he had a big target on his back. Rich served honorably, and he needs to be recognized.”
In receiving the award, Rohde clearly was emotional, as was Eletto. “There was an enormous amount of sincerity that went with his humor, which is normal with Joe,” Rohde said, in an interview this week. “Receiving the recognition from him meant a whole lot to me because of his extreme involvement with the chamber. He served as a chamber president, board member and ambassador, and there’s even an ambassador award named in his honor.”
Rohde said Eletto’s tribute was unexpected. “My experience with the chamber was to be able to be a part of the community and to be of some service,” Rohde said. “I felt that I had accomplished that through some positions I held, including as a chamber board member and chamber ambassador and through the Military Affairs Committee.”
According to Eletto, the committee is open both to chamber members and the public at large, driven by its mission to help with needs as they arise, military people (active duty, Veteran or retired) and their families. Likewise, “we aim to get the chamber membership and the Greater Riverview community to be more engaged with this group of people,” Eletto added.
In recounting the start of the Military Affairs Committee, Eletto said years ago he visited the Brandon chamber’s like-minded committee and was convinced that the Riverview chamber needed to step up as well. “Right here, in this part of South Hillsborough County, it’s filled with military people,” Eletto said. “We wanted to do what we could to provide for this population. It was an honor to have Major General George W. “Nordie” Norwood, a two-star U.S. Air Force general living in Riverview, help us pen our mission statement.”
As he gets set for the next chapter of his life in a new state, Rohde offered some parting remarks.
Richard Rohde receives a standing ovation at the chamber dinner, recognized for his 25-year tenure with the organization.
“I have 25 years invested in this community, and I think the obvious is that you can’t be in one place for 25 years and not have some attachment,” Rohde said. “People ask me, ‘Aren’t you excited to move?’ Well, yeah, I guess, for the new house, but it’s really difficult to leave behind so many friends, neighbors and associates. I like to think that I will find as friendly a group of people in South Carolina as I have found living here.”
To the new and ongoing chamber membership, Rohde said it’s important to “remember to be unselfish, and to place service ahead of any financial gains.”
The chamber’s Military Affairs Committee, open to chamber members and the public at large, meets 8 a.m. every odd month (January, March, May, July, September and November) at chamber headquarters. The address is 6152 Delancey Station St., Suite 205, in the Winthrop Town Centre, at the corner of Providence and Watson roads.
For more, visit www.centralhillsboroughchamber.com/ or call 813-234-5944.