LAST Words
ANN OWENS IS A WRITER, CREATIVE GENIUS, ENTREPRENEUR, MOTHER, AND
WIFE WHO ENJOYS PONDERING WHAT MAKES THE WORLD CLICK.
Creating a Vibrant Community
it takes all hands on deck to keep the gears turning
If you know me personally at all,
you know how much I value a sense
of community and how much I believe
you should become involved, invest,
and take an active role in where you
live. Karl and I began our personal
community journey in 2001 when
we invested in a building downtown
and immediately fell in love with
being a part of the historic district
family. Through the next several
years, I volunteered on boards and
committees, assisted in organizing
and working events, and began to
understand the value of loving where
you live. It was an incredibly fulfilling
time in my life.
In 2004, Karl and I had a
temporary moment of insanity
and purchased The PAL Theatre
in downtown Vidalia. Collectively,
we knew as much about running a
movie theatre as individually I knew
about peeing on a tree. All we were
armed with was a growing passion
for historic preservation and a deep
desire to be community builders–and
to us, that was all the qualifications
we needed. Needless to say, we bit off
way more than we could chew, but
we chewed hard and consistently for
10 solid years. It was our desire to
bring something new and a sense of
pride in what our area had to offer in
the way of the arts. It was a beautiful
run in many ways. Sadly, the support
was just never what we had hoped
for, and we could
no longer
continue to
keep
the doors open. In 2014, we finally
walked away… disillusioned,
heartbroken, and feeling bitter. My
flame and passion were gone, and I
washed my hands of all volunteer and
entrepreneurial efforts.
As fate would have it, in February
of 2020, through my employment with
the Greater Vidalia® Chamber (GVC)
and The Toombs County Development
Authority (TCDA), we brought in a
speaker by the name of Quint Studer.
Quint was instrumental in turning
around his city of Pensacola, Florida,
and had written a book entitled
Building A Vibrant Community /
How Citizen-Powered Change is
Reshaping America. He surveyed
our community, made a site visit,
conducted a workshop attended
by 150+ people, and formulated a
roadmap for what we needed to do
as citizens to grow and prosper. I
am not kidding when I say I had a
secret crush on this man who was 11
years my senior and who turned an
entire city around. He had a vision
and he made it happen, and I was just
stupidly in awe of him. I read his book
twice and everything came back to
me, only this time I was older, wiser,
and much more experienced. Also,
and probably most importantly, I
began to realize how naïve I had been
about what is important. A Vibrant
Community is made up of much more
than pretty buildings, onions, and
fun events for adults and children;
so much more. That alone will not
ensure the well-being of our citizens
of all ages, that alone will not keep
and/or bring our young people back to
stay and thrive here, and that alone
does little to improve lasting and
overall quality of life.
Recently, we held our second
workshop to reengage the Vibrant
Community efforts and, following
Quint’s roadmap, we are asking
citizens to engage in one or more
of 4 gears that will take us to the
next level – Economic Development,
Placemaking (Downtowns), Civic
Education & Engagement, or Early
Learning & Education. We are looking
for leaders, movers and shakers,
people with passions and desires to
make a difference in where we live.
We should be focusing on making
sure pre-k enrollment numbers
go up and that by 3rd grade, our
babies are reading. Let us address
teen pregnancy, workforce issues,
childcare, housing, and mental
wellness. And while we are at it,
wouldn’t it be cool to have a dog park
and bicycle paths? These elements,
and many more, are what make up a
Vibrant Community.
So, I ask you, where is your
passion? Do you see yourself turning
one of these gears? Do you have time,
a skillset, resources, or just a heart to
dive in with us? I mean, it’s cool if you
don’t see yourself plugging into one
of these areas, but it would be even
more cool if you did because we can
accomplish anything together, and it
truly does take a village.
Through the help of Georgia Power,
we have created a Community
Dashboard which gives you 18
different sets of data on where
we stand in categories such as
education, wellness and workforce.
The results of our community survey,
Quint’s site visit report, roadmap,
and the dashboard can be found on
our website at
www.greatervidaliachamber.com >
Locate & Expand > Demographics.
Scroll down until you see “Vibrant
Community Documents”.
HOMETOWN LIVING AT I TS BEST 128
/www.greatervidaliachamber.com