‘Textbook volunteer’ and cookie company win SLO County town’s top citizen, business

Tala Romero, known countywide for her passionate volunteerism, has been tapped to be Cambria Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Citizen of the Year.

Many of her efforts are on behalf of North Coast immigrants, Latinos and those in need, although some of her work also helps people in those and other categories throughout San Luis Obispo County.

The 50-year Cambria resident will be honored at a celebration dinner on Feb. 11, as will the business of the year, Red Moose Cookie Company.

The dinner is sponsored by the Cambria Chamber of Commerce.

Romero’s volunteerism helps cross-section of North Coast and beyond

Mention a Cambria nonprofit activity, and Romero’s probably involved in it somehow, either front and center running things or in the background, supporting the group.

Romero’s contact file and calendar are packed with volunteering notations, such as for Lions Club of Cambria, Santa Rosa Catholic Church, American Legion Post No. 432 Auxiliary, Coast Union High School’s Sober Grad event and Cambria’s El Pinal Parlor No. 163 Native Daughters of the Golden West.

Notably, during the Lions Club’s Pinedorado celebrations on Labor Day weekend, you’ll find Romero nearly everywhere helping, organizing and running things.

She served for a time as the Latino/Latina liaison appointee for the county’s North Coast Advisory Council, and helped coordinate fundraising and care efforts to help double-lung transplant patient Rocky Fordyce, whom she and her husband had known for decades.

After 33 years working for CAPSLO, Romero plans to retire in December.

She’s currently center supervisor for Cambria Head Start and Early Head Start and filled the same post at Sequoia Preschool in Morro Bay for eight years.

Romero holds a bachelor’s degree in child development from Southern California’s University of La Verne.

She’s been married since 1981 to chef Joe Romero. They have two children born in San Luis Obispo and raised in Cambria, seven grandchildren, and their great-grandchild is due to be born in June.

Two of their grandchildren, Cecilia Romero and Vanessa Romero, live with Tala and Joe Romero.

While her kids were in school and after, she did all the usual mom-of-kids volunteering and then some.

She started her volunteer history in 1985 with the Cambria Co-op Preschool, was a scout leader for six years, a room mother, PTA volunteer and was very active in the Bronco Booster Club.

Romero was Little League president and helped cook and serve umpteen Friday night dinners for the Coast Union High School football team.

In 2017, Tribune columnist Charmaine Coimbro labeled Romero as a “textbook volunteer.”

Romero told Coimbro that her most memorable volunteer moments were “letting my children know that we all have hidden talents and gifts that we can give to others and a chance to give back.

“I love to bring people together, often uniting people from diverse backgrounds, working together for a common goal,” Romero told the columnist.

“I love to support families and improve schools, making new friends, rediscovering old ones and making a difference, walking away feeling that I accomplished a task, investing in Cambria and all who live here.”

Things are sweet for Cambria’s Business of the Year

Red Moose Cookie Company has been making cookies in Cambria’s Tin Village industrial park since 2009, first with the team of Caren Fallows and Roger Wall running the tiny show.

After Fallows died suddenly in 2015, Wall soldiered on alone.

Then Tyler Nichol and her parents, Monica and George Nichol, bought the company from Wall in 2021.

They added some new products to the noted assortment: oatmeal raisin cookies, a chocolate fudge brownie with no nuts and Moose Madness, a sugar cookie with M&Ms.

Less than a year later, the new owners opened a retail outlet at 784-D Main St. in Cambria’s West Village commercial district, but keeping the village lane location as their commissary.

The Nichols family team hasn’t looked back since then, adding other products to the Red Moose Cookie Company lineup, like a classical, simply sugar cookie that’s been flying off the shelves, especially for youngsters of any age.

“We were totally surprised and happy to be selected as Business of the Year,” Monica Nichol told The Tribune early Tuesday, while pulling tray after tray of cookies out of the oven.

“We were kind of shocked and super appreciative,” her daughter said.

This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

805-781-7904 (voicemails only)

Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.