MORE THAN
MICKEY
Tourism first changed
Osceola County. Now
high-tech is leading
another transformation.
BY MICK LOCHRIDGE
Cheryl Grieb moved to Osceola County in 1974. She
was 6 years old. Walt Disney World, just across the Orange
County line, had opened just three years before.
Osceola was home to about 39,000 residents who enjoyed
the county’s rural, small-town charm.
“There are many favorite memories of growing up in Osceola
County,” says Grieb, now 51, a successful businesswoman and chairwoman
of the Osceola County Commission. “I loved to run around
in the woods and be one with nature. I used to see deer, all kinds of
birds and once I saw a bobcat. Not sure my mom would have been
happy about that.”
Grieb says everyone knew one another — and everyone looked out
for one another. “Believe me, if I was doing something I shouldn’t
have been, it got back to my mom,” she says. “That was great for her.
She was a single mom raising four kids on her own.”
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