#LoveLakeland

#LoveLakeland. This is the Elevate Polk podcast, and I'm your host Chrissanne Long, and with me as always is Rob Arturi. And it's a super exciting day for me to be— to bring my great friends Howard and Linda Bagley Wiggs into the conversation with us. We are excited to have the longest serving serving City of Lakeland public official in our presence today. So welcome to the show, Howard and Linda.

Glad to be here.

We had decided we wanted to bring them on the show to talk about their involvement with the Love Lakeland organization that they founded. And I said, well, is that too Lakeland-centric for the Elevate Polk podcast?

And you said, no, and here's why. Obviously this podcast is about Polk County overall, but I think that things like the Love Lakeland organization movement, whatever you want to call it, and the City Maker Award that Lakeland was giving out to local people, those kinds of things I think we should be encouraging in other cities throughout the county. So while it may just be from Lakeland, Lakeland, a Lakeland perspective. It's something that I think I'd like to see grow to other areas, other municipalities around the county. So if we can start talking about what you all did here, hopefully we can kind of give Winter Haven and some others a kick in the pants.

There we go.

So you're thinking about franchise fees.

That's right. Yeah, we want to export the concept.

We're broadening the vision, right? So I thought it would be fun to talk about really where Love Lakeland started, and then how it has evolved over the years. And I think that's just, you guys are the creators and the masterminds behind the whole thing. So why don't we start with you telling us how your story of how, because my story's just a version of your story. We've all been here doing this the same for quite a while.

Well, hitchhiking on what you were saying about expanding it to other communities. Originally, what we were talking about in the car was a problem that the city of Lakeland was having opening parks on special holidays. They were running out of funds. So we were talking about starting something like a local on-call volunteer energy or local online volunteer energy. And then we said, okay, Love Lakeland. It could be Love Winter Haven. It could be Love Bartow. That's originally how we started it.

Absolutely.

We continued it. It is a movement. It is a nonprofit, 501, and it is a movement that we say #LoveLakeland on social media and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter to put Love Lakeland so others can also, people put the magnets, the Love Lakeland magnets on. Somebody said, um, yeah, I love to have it when I'm in North Carolina because people will stop me, and it's really a neat way to get the conversation started.

Well, you took the, the magnets and, and the, the pens and everything, and you started kind of that trend. So tell everybody listening where they can get a Love Lakeland magnet.

Yes, um, the magnets are $3.50 at the Stationery Loft downtown Kentucky Avenue, and they are wonderful. Yeah.

And when you think about how warm and fuzzy the word love is, how expansive it can mean, it means different things to different folks, obviously. But what was happening in Lakeland, not only were we having these significant budgetary challenges, talking about closing major parks and that sort of thing, perhaps even other things as well, closing or reducing services. But in Lakeland, we were also dealing with a pretty significant internal problem with the police department and then some divisiveness within the commission. Over the years, if you look back at the Lakeland City Commission, we were somewhat collegial group. It was always the fact that even when you had 4 to 3 votes, when you had divisive kinds of topics or issues, that you always walked away from the meeting to go have lunch with one another, to have camaraderie with one another. There wasn't this lingering animosity.

Right. The vitriol that is evident in other communities wasn't here amongst the commissioners.

And you see how damaging that can be, whatever level of government, whether it be local, state, national, whatever. However, we had kind of, because of the upset with the police department and because of some other internal things that were going on, questioning some leadership and different things, not at the commission level, but more in staff, you began to see that divisiveness enter into the Lakeland City Commission. So we realized not only did we want to figure out ways to better serve the citizens through keeping parks open, asking for volunteer assistance and that sort of thing, but also we also want to look at What are the things that bring cities together rather than break them apart or create divisiveness? And so those are some of the kinds of things that were the genesis for us looking at creating this movement, as Linda said.

And I will add to that as well. As that conversation was taking place, there were dialogues, and I'm not sure, Howard, you're probably going to have to remember how he actually came to Lakeland originally, but Peter Kagayama, who wrote For the Love of Cities, had written a book about cities loving their community and where they lived and how people like a Chrissanne Long, who was kind of under the radar at the time, were people who were city makers. They were making cities stronger or better because they shared their passions within the community. He came to speak.

We originally, and you may have even called it my attention, but someone called For the Love of Cities to my attention. I went out and bought the book and began to read it. There was a lot of research with a lot of different cities, so it was well documented. It was clear that the information that Kageyama had brought forward was pretty reliable. Only 24% of the cities surveyed throughout the country had citizens who were willing to say, "I love my city." The cities that had a higher percentage of folks who were willing to step up and say, "I love my city," for whatever reason, the The reasons were diverse and far-ranging. It could be because I love my corner coffee shop, or I love the activity among the small business community, or we love the Chrissanne Longs of the community, or the services that a city would provide. There were just a whole plethora of different reasons that folks were willing to say, "I love this city." But when that was in place, You had folks who would step up and say, I'm going to be more forgiving of my city. I'm going to be more involved and connected with my city so that if I have a good idea, I'm not going to just keep it at home. I'm going to take it and present it to folks who can implement it, or maybe I can implement it. I'm going to do everything that I can to make this a better city because I love it. As Linda and I talked about this, I told Linda, if we can get folks to realize that they do love the city, but to take that next step forward—

Right, where it becomes an action word.

It becomes an action word. Very, very well put. Then let's see what the outcomes can be, not for just today, but for a long period ahead. And as Rob's talking about, and Linda alluded to, love Winter Haven, love Bartow, whatever. How can other cities buy into this concept so that maybe we have the greatest loving county in the state or the country? But if your basic foundational premise is we love this place, so we're going to figure out a way to make it successful, right? Then you're going to have all kinds of good things happen.

It's a perfect blueprint for how a city can engage other community members to come into the conversation, whether or not they're invited. And I think that's a sense that a lot of the people in the community might feel is that there needs to be an invitation. And I don't want— I want all of our listeners to know that you're invited. Like, I wasn't invited, but I decided to invite myself. And I have found a lot of reciprocity coming from the fact that I've taken love to mean an action word. And I found that it does mean a lot more to me because people are listening and they're willing to listen to new ideas. However, the message of the book was that there are a lot of people who will come forward with an idea that might be perceived to be rejected by the leadership in the community. And that was one of the discussions is how do we get to yes? And we started having that discussion of it might be no today, but what would you need to do to get to a point where we could do whatever it was that was proposed as that idea?

Yeah. And when you have that kind of environment, that environment of receptiveness and love and caring about one another, then there's an assumption if you're on the outside looking in that the assumption is that folks do want to hear from me because this is a community where we want to be inclusive, we want to be receptive, and so you assume that good things are going to happen if I come bring forth my idea.

With Lakeland, we have so much going on and there's so much enthusiasm and growth and new foodie reputation and love Lakeland just rolls off people's mouths. I mean, it was easy to do. I don't— I'd love for love to continue around the entire county, but I think Bartow is going to have to come up with another word.

I heart Bartow.

Yeah, I love our love Lakeland alliteration.

Right.

Howard, it was really interesting what you were talking about before about some of the divisiveness that was going on. I mean, I'm— I have a background in law enforcement. I watched that issue at Lakeland PD pretty closely, and that was quite, quite a mess. I'm glad it was you and not me weathering through that storm. But it seems intuitive to me that when you have a common love, so like you said, maybe it's, I love the food trucks, or I love all the pubs, or I love running around Lake Hollingsworth, or I gravitate more towards the first two than the last one. But suffice to say, I think it all distills down to optimism versus pessimism.

Right? Absolutely.

Right? I mean, isn't that the fundamental thread?

Great point.

Optimism versus pessimism. If I love something about my town and I love this town because of fill in the blank, it does change the way I view all the other things, even the bad things. Right? It's just think about like a marriage. If you love somebody, you don't like them every day.

Right? And you don't like every single solitary thing about them.

Of course.

No.

I do about you, Linda. Yeah.

I know what they're talking about.

But they're talking about other than you and me.

Oh, I know. Oh, man.

Not everyone has the kind of love that you two share.

Very special. Yeah, Rob, and that really, that is such an important point, particularly in the environment that we're in today. Sadly, as you know, there's a polarization. And so if we're not careful, those kinds of things can filter down to the lower levels. Historically, if you look at the political viewpoints, you say all politics are local. And so there was always, again, an assumption that on the local level, everybody was going to be kumbaya. That's turning out not to be the case because you see sanctuary cities, whether it be for illegal immigrant or wherever the characterization is, or guns or whatever. So everybody's kind of dividing up their turf and protecting their turf and that sort of thing. But what the Loving Foundation does, or the Love Anything Foundation does, it transcends and supersedes leadership so that if you've got leaders that you don't necessarily respect or agree with or whatever, but you can look beyond This is not just about leadership. This is not just about elected officials or somebody in administrative position. This is about loving my community. What I have is this wonderful city that I love. And so I'm going to stand beside my city just like folks stand beside New York. They may not agree with everything that happens in New York or Lakeland, but they're going to stand behind their community.

Right.

One of the things that was a big deal that could have— well, it was a divisive issue. It was the movement of the monument.

Oh, yeah.

And they were going to have some outside agitators were going to focus on Lakeland and have a big protest, and it just didn't come to pass. This is Lakeland, right? And unlike some cities where they just took something off the top and left a pole, where I saw it in New Orleans, which was so sad, they thoughtfully went about how to make it a compromise. And moving the monument to Veterans Park was a compromise, and it wasn't stepping over anybody in our community because we love our community. We love all people in our community. And it wasn't a rancor that you would expect with something as emotional as that.

That's a good point.

And as potentially divisive as that could have been.

On a national level, that issue is horribly divisive. And it is worth noting, I mean, that situation, you're right, not only could it have gotten or been worse, it was worse in a lot of cities around the country. The point you made about the one in New Orleans, right, where they left a stump, that's left like that for a reason. It's because it's like the political equivalent of putting your enemy's head on a stake in front of the castle.

There's a message there. Right.

Like, "Look, we tore this down, and this is all you have left is this stump." And what that does, it's a finger in the eye of everybody who may have a different belief. And this community is not wildly divided. But we may have different opinions on different issues. But by doing it in a way where we said, listen, we're going to remove this from the center of town. However, we're going to treat it with dignity for those who feel this way. And then what you did was you still have some people grumble because you can never please everybody, right? But you don't have that same elevation of passion.

Let's say it had ended up differently, you know, or if I was on the other side and I didn't have a very strong position because I don't have any history with the monument, or I didn't really have an opinion until it became, you know, an issue. And so I didn't get into it because I didn't have a dog in the hunt, so to speak. But what I did appreciate and what I hope that we were able to do, and I think you said it extremely well, Rob, was we were able to handle it with dignity. But if that wasn't my way, if I didn't get my way in that particular issue, I hope that we can all see that I don't always get our way. I think there have been votes in the history of your experience as a commissioner and as mayor that didn't go the way you wanted them to go, but that didn't decide, "Yo, I'm going to throw the baby out with the bathwater and I'm done with this place." We're going to find other areas on which we can have common ground and believe in what we are actually here for. Here's one problem that we dealt with. We dealt with it one way and some people were not happy with the outcome. Some people were, and some people were just like, I just want my city to get back to normal again. I just want us to get along and love Lakeland again.

Right. And it is normal for us to love Lakeland. But bringing up these particular issues, it's like any family, you've got things that you need to work through. So the love Lakeland isn't just that we've always been wonderful, rush hour being waiting for the swans to cross the road. You know, it's— we have things that we work through, but coming from love, like if you come from the family of love, then it's easier to work through those. Howard many times had ideas for the city that, that maybe didn't go through, and he had more ideas. I used to say in the advertising business, don't get married to your ideas. Don't even date them. There are plenty of ideas and many, many things that we can come up with that would improve the city or improve our work lives.

Or— well, let's talk about one of those ideas in particular, and that's the City Maker Award.

Yeah.

Yes, because I think the Love Lakeland movement is a philosophical thing. The City Maker Award is a, a tangible thing, and I think we all should do a better job of highlighting the good. I really like these positive awards and I'm, I'm not a naive or foolishly optimistic person by nature, but I like these things because I think it doesn't give me the impression that everything is always wonderful, but it gives me the impression that, that we value, at least some people in the community value things that are positive, that are good, that are beneficial. If there's people like that, then there's a reason to keep aspiring to doing those things. Right.

And these people did things selflessly and creatively, and it was wonderful. Howard's always been one that has wanted to recognize the unsung hero. Our mission for Love Lakeland and specifically CityMaker, it's a platform for promoting Lakeland and community good deeds in the process to encourage love Lakeland as a shared community brand and to recognize unsung heroes in the community.

And it's a powerful statement. And I'm glad that, you know, you all came up with it.

A lot of it started, I guess, with Chrissanne and me talking about what can we do to start recognizing these folks in the community. So Chrissanne, what were you thinking when you and I were collaborating on creating City Makers?

So it started with Howard asking me the question, What can we do that we're not already doing? And I think it's a really good question to ask. It's a tough question too. Because everybody's going to have a different answer. And then you've got to figure out what are we going to do with the answers if we're going to actually bring these people to the table. And so the answer to the question was, I don't think we're doing a good enough job of finding these unsung heroes and telling their story. And that's where CityMaker came from.

And it's wonderful. It started when Howard was mayor, and Mayor Mutz is continuing it with us. And it's just wonderful that the mayor has embraced that, and we have the bimonthly meetings now. This year we're doing bimonthly of awarding the City Maker Award at City Hall on the second meeting of the month, which is the third Monday at 3:00. It's very exciting. People show up to see their friend or loved one being awarded. Chrissanne, you do a great job of telling about the person and the The Love Lakeland getting the article on social media and the Ledger stepping forward and also doing an article. So it's really getting the community involved. It's wonderful to have that.

I don't know anybody that likes giving awards more than Chrissanne Long. I do like giving awards.

And I do want to do a shout out for John. He is the writer. He has been the writer for the last 2 years. CityMaker started in 2017, right? So we're going into our third year and it's just been fantastic to see the evolution and how we've improved the systems too, because that's one of the things when you have ideas and you throw mud on the wall, it's easy to have an idea, but to actually make it come to life is a lot of work. And it is. And it's— and that's one of the things that I would say to anyone with ideas that feels like they're not being heard in the community, Polk County or Lakeland or wherever they may be, come with a plan. To follow up with your idea. Good advice. Because it can't just— somebody's going to have to do the work to make the idea happen. So it's been fantastic that there's a listening audience in our leadership today. And I'm very thrilled that Mayor Mutz decided to continue the program. But at the same time, nobody in our community wants to shut down creativity. Nobody in our community isn't a fan of new ideas. But there is a process by which ideas have to be created and implemented. And then someone's is going to have to do the work.

And we have to thank our sponsors too, for the people that stand up, the businesses and the organizations that stand up and present the award and give the money and, and keep it going with the social media and getting their name out in association with City Makers.

We couldn't do it without our sponsors, and so we're always looking for sponsors. We're always looking for nominations. So if you're listening to this podcast and you think you know someone who would make a great City Maker, or if you just want to get behind the Love Lakeland City Maker initiative, please go to lovelakeland.com and you can see everything you need to know there. You can see all of the past recipients. You can nominate a CityMaker or submit a form to say you'd like to sponsor.

And our sponsors are on the website as well.

Yes. And I think this is really important, not only because of the primary focus and that being recognizing unsung heroes, which is critically important, but also the fact that the job is not done. And I saw that we talk— refer back to the monument issue. I was really— my whole life has been in Mulberry and Lakeland, and so I was really adamantly opposed to moving that monument. That really created a tumultuous feeling within myself, but I wasn't going to throw anybody under the bus for it. I wasn't going to be forever angry about it. However, as I went to the commission meetings, people would stand up and pound the table and say, "My way or the highway." There was a lot of anger, a lot of hostility on both sides. The importance is that we need to expand Love Lakeland and City Makers because we want this to influence people's attitudes in a lot of different ways, to realize that we're going to have more divisive issues that will come forward and we can choose. We'll have folks that don't have a history with Lakeland who frankly are just wanting to get their way. But again, if that's tempered, if that's framed in the idea that, okay, I'm really passionate about this idea, but I'm also part of this community, a loving community. I'm going to have to frame this in a way that's not going to say my way or the highway, but rather, how can we figure out together to make these kind of things work? Again, that job's not done yet. I see folks who move into Lakeland who are passionate, may have great ideas, but have not yet come to understand what Lakeland's about, how unique Lakeland is in the the caring about the community. So as we expand it, we move from the 24% to the 40% to the 80% or whatever the number ultimately is that folks are willing to say, "I love this community and I'm going to stand behind it even if I got to figure out a different way to move forward with my own ideas." I don't know that we would be having this podcast if it hadn't been for your appreciation of Crazy Chrissanne's ideas.

Your brilliance. I just say Crazy Chrissanne's ideas because there are sometimes, and Craig, my husband, will tell you But there are a lot of ideas that never make the light of day. So that's a good thing.

That's why you have Craig at home. Exactly. A sounding board.

What we've been talking about here, and whether it's City Makers or the whole Love Lakeland umbrella, it's important because when you go to a place that has that charm, that spirit, it kind of gives people a path to know, all right, I'm going to bring something new. Which is good. But I'm also going to stay in the lane of that same feeling with the town. I think that's how we keep things moving forward and changing, but changing for the better.

And also growing and attracting our children to want to move back into town. Yes. Go learn something, go live in another city and come back home. And that was one of the things we don't want our biggest export to be our our young people and our college students.

Where do you see Lakeland 20 years from now? I mean, you both have been here for a very, very long time. I happen to believe that it's going to be dramatically different in a positive way. Again, I guess you're— are you making me optimistic? I was never this optimistic. It's working.

I don't know what it is. By golly, that's why I decided to come on this show. I have to say by golly on every show, guys. That's just what's required.

Rob, are you saying you're beginning to love Lakeland?

Well, no, it's not. I have, but I was not a pessimist, but I'm naturally skeptical of things. But Chrissanne is just making me more and more optimistic about these things and cheery, and it is aggravatingly delightful. But I think we're going to continue to grow. I think the growth has been exponential. I love the investment in the city. Linda, you brought up the younger generations coming back here and bringing those ideas back here. That is absolutely, that's a huge part of why we do this. It's something we've talked about before and I know we're gonna talk about again, but I think that is a crucial part of this. And you know, some people complain about all these new bars opening up and things. Well, guess what? How do you get a 22-year-old to move back to Lakeland? Yeah.

We have places for them to go. Yeah, exactly. And you listen to them. You know, I, I remember being 20-something and naive and bullheaded and stubborn, and I had all of these thoughts of the ways that I could change the world and nobody listened to me. And at the same time, they shouldn't have listened to me because I was bullheaded and stubborn. And but I think if we don't open up the dialog for younger generations to share their ideas, they're going to go somewhere else because somewhere else someone will listen to them. Yeah. And they're— and if we can just create a culture that is open and at least engages them and and appreciates that energy and that enthusiasm that we all had when we were that young and keep that dialogue going somehow, some way, Love Lakeland is going to become something that for 20 years will continue. But I think Rob's trying to ask the question of how do you see the future of Lakeland in the next 20 years?

Or what do you want to see?

And that maybe— I don't want to put your fortune-telling abilities on the spot, but what would you like to see 20 years from now?

I see an oasis, a wonderful shining star, the place that people want to be, but still have the small town charm. We're going to be very much bigger. It's going to be interesting what goes on with shared riding, if we're going to have traffic problems or if we're going to have it be even easier because of shared rides and whatever else we're going on. Hovercraft. Whatever it is, we don't want people to— I mean, it's a matter of If somebody comes in and says, I'm going to change Lakeland, well, it's no, come make it even better, come add to. And, and, um, but we don't need to change per se, we need to grow and evolve and to be, um, I love the idea of being in a place that, like a home, like you want to be safe in your home, you want to feel we've got great people that take care of us, make sure we're safe in the streets. And again, with the Love Lakeland, if that's the who we are, we don't have mean people on the streets. We say hello. We enjoy the community, the camaraderie. I think what's so beautiful about it is we do have all the colleges. I would never want to move to the villages and have only people over 55 in my sphere of life. I want young people and children and grandchildren and students and all those. And so if we could even add more generational connectedness as we grow older as a population and as we want to attract these next generations here. So that could be something that we would see more of.

Well, let me add to that. I have a little more guarded viewpoint, and I guess because I was sitting as an elected official for 25 years, and so you see opportunities or challenges or however you want to characterize those, whatever euphemism you want for those, where there's no— either there's no solution really to it or not a clear-cut solution. So in my judgment, it's even more important that Love Lakeland be successful in City Makers. And part of the reason was I had to testify before the legislature. I think it was in 2016, and I was given some data from Lakeland Electric because it was part of— part of what I was talking about was electric utility issues. And the projections are And even if they're far short, they were enormous. The population of Lakeland in 30 or 35 years, a million people just in Lakeland. Now we currently, real quickly, population within the city limits about 110,000, maybe slightly more, right? About 275,000 on Lakeland Electric, which is pretty good size. But you can imagine a population in Lakeland of a million people. What that's going to create are all sorts of, of again, opportunities or challenges. But whether you whether you have autonomous driving vehicles or not, you are going to have so many cars, you're going to have so much space taken up. Every opportunity for a building to go in, the spaces will be filled up. You have to have properly managed growth, and we look to our city leadership for that. But we're going to have all sorts of opportunities or needs or challenges. So if we don't approach the future as exactly as y'all were describing, embracing young folks, new ideas, change or growth that works in order to the benefit of everybody, you're going to have a lot of anger. You're going to have a lot of confusion. You're going to have a lot of misunderstanding, all the things that can negatively happen. On the other hand, if when you have a new opportunity come up or a new challenge and you're going to approach it with the belief that we're going to make this work out because we all love Lakeland, we're not going to do anything crazy because we Lakeland's important for all of us, just like to make a decision on water that would pollute water. We know we can't survive without water. Well, I don't think Lakeland can survive effectively as a community if we don't recognize it's important to work out our problems together or our issues or things together. And you can imagine the magnitude of what we're talking about if we only 750,000. I mean, I mean, whatever the number is, gigantic number, it will be an unmanageable number unless we can say, "We're going to figure this out together because we love our community." You said something a while ago, Chrissanne, about bringing folks together. That is so important that we have a community, but if we all approach it to say, "Let's bring people together so that we can figure out the best way to do things that will endure to the benefit of everybody," then we're going to have have a community in 20 years that will be far bigger. It'll have a lot more amenities. It will have great amenities. It'll have a great downtown because we're figuring out a way to maintain a great downtown with Catapult and bringing businesses downtown. And eventually we'll get a supermarket downtown and we'll get a pharmacy and a park, Bonnet Springs Park, and all those— oh, Bonnet Springs— those kinds of legacy improvements to our community. But it'll be done within a framework of saying that we're gonna decide, willfully and intentionally decide, to not allow certain things to come in if it doesn't fit in with the attitude or the approach, the perspective of a great city that loves one another.

And I love that you said that because I think we started a long time ago with talking about a downtown master plan, and I don't know that one has ever been created, but as this growth—

You and I pushed for that. We didn't quite get it done.

But as this growth is upon us, we really need to understand what we as a community want for specifically downtown, but for all of the community and Polk County at large as well.

That's very important. I remember it can't be always about the money. We were offered an opportunity many years ago to sell the corner where Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine went in, and we were offered, and that was 20 or 25, 30 years ago, $1 million for that corner to sell that building. We own most of the building, good part of the building, or we were—

We being the We being the city, the city, not Linda and me.

Or we could give it to Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine. Yeah. And we opted to forego the million dollars. Oh, it was a Walgreens or a CVS. It was some sort of big pharmacy kind of a thing, recognizing if we're looking at the future of a great community, the kinds of things we have may not be just about money. It needs to be about quality of life.

Yeah. And that beautiful building is now a special school.

A special academy. An academy, yeah. Yes. And Lake Forest Volunteers in Medicine grew out of that space and now has an amazing location nearby.

It's a building, yeah. And thanks to our generous donors here in Lakeland.

Mm-hmm. It really is a special town. And, you know, Linda, you mentioned something earlier about how the idea that you want to see all of these things change and evolve. And as two folks who have served the city for a long time, time, and are now in their retirement years. And I see a trend a lot of times where, you know, there's a reason that people move to The Villages. It's because it is among people who all have that same mentality. But it's people like yourself who have that attitude that I may be getting older, but I'm not too old to change and to embrace change.

You know, we've had in our history wonderful people that have had big visions, of course, George Jenkins and Publix, and we're still enjoying the generous family for sure. And, and, but Lakeland as a whole has a phenomenal philanthropic thread running through it. We are a most generous community, and we're known for generosity. And many times the social life is fundraisers, for fundraiser parties. And it is just really— I'm grateful for all the generosity and the big ideas that, that come with corporations and come with small businesses and entrepreneurs and our college students that have stayed in town and make businesses. I'm I'm just tickled by that.

But for those smaller cities within Polk, Lakeland was the size of Bartow at some point in history. May have to go back quite a few years.

Madola used to be bigger than Lakeland.

Okay, there you go. But ultimately, if you're in where they are today, that's how you grow bigger and better. It's these policies, it's these ideals that you all have shepherded for a long time. And people like Chrissanne continue to push for those things. And I'm just— I'm glad. I appreciate what you've done.

Thank you, Rob. Thank you. And one of the things when you're like— I'm president of Love Lakeland. I'm glad I got to be that. And even on social media, I tend to be, you know, sometimes you see things and you want to repost it and I go, that's not really in love of Lakeland. If you get— I mean, sometimes you can get political or something Nope, doesn't fit with what we are, because it is all about the love for us.

And I will throw out one more time, you already said it, but we do still want sponsors. It's the, the number is very manageable. I don't know if we want to say $1,000 and you get to come out on stage and make the award and the presentation.

You have a month of social media. Lots of social media. Thanks, Chrissanne Long, for promoting our CityMaker and the company sponsoring them.

Yes. So yeah, we would love to have some fresh ideas for nominations as well. You know, it's— I'm just so exuberant and excited about telling these stories to more people because I want that narrative to be told of the great things that people are doing. So the more we tell the story of all of you unsung heroes and people who are just doing a really good job, and you can nominate yourself if you want. There's no shame in that game. Um, just go to lovelakeland.com and, and click on nominate a city maker. Thanks for listening everyone, and make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review. You can find all of our episodes at elevatepolk.com, and if there's something you want to hear about on an upcoming episode, reach out to us on Facebook at Elevate Polk.