Eighteen years ago, Jodi Stevens was one of several on the Plant City Family YMCA’s Board of Directors who helped create its annual Strong Leader Award. Now she’s getting one.
“I’m quite honored,” Stevens said. “It’s such an honor to be up there with the 17 other leaders of our community.”
Stevens was announced as the Y’s newest Strong Leader Award winner last week and executive director Paul Conley said the decision to give it to her was an easy call.
“Jodi is the type of person that has been involved in the community for years,” Conley said. “She helped the Y start Strong Leader. When you think about people in the community that should and can be recognized, Jodi’s at the top of that list. I’ve worked with her in a number of different things and the type of leader, the type of positive person she is and the impact she’s made over the years, we just thought she’d be a great person for this award.”
Before Stevens got involved with the Plant City Y’s board of directors, she was a devoted member. She started working out at the facility as soon as it opened in 1998 and you could often find her in there working up a sweat before the crack of dawn.
“I used to be the crazy one up there at 5 a.m. working out,” she said. “Then I had kids.”
Stevens gradually got more involved with the Y, from helping to get the facility to open at 5 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m. to eventually joining the Advisory Board in 2003. She was named its Rookie of the Year in 2004, its MVP of the annual Giving Campaign in 2005 and its president from 2006 to 2007. She also served as a Strong Leader Dinner chair and co-chair from its inception from 2002 through 2006. Even after leaving the YMCA’s board, she remained heavily involved in the community.
Stevens was a longtime member of the Noon Rotary Club and its first-ever female president. She was heavily involved in the creation of the annual Pig Jam barbecue competition event — which she jokingly called her “first-born child” in a press release — and has also been involved with Rotary’s Dancing with the Locals event. To name a handful of things, she is also a past president of the Lions Club, the Junior Woman’s Club and the Plant City chapter of the American Business Women’s Association, a board member of Tampa’s American Cancer Society branch, a member of Plant City’s Relay for Life committee (as well as 2017’s honorary survivor), co-chair of ambassadors for the Florida Strawberry Festival and a volunteer since 2001, treasurer of Plant City Little League and the East Hillsborough Law Enforcement Appreciation board and, most recently, joining Plant City Main Street’s board. Stevens was recognized in 2018 as one of the Plant City Observer’s “Wonder Women” for her tireless involvement within the Plant City community.
“I do everything that I do in the community because I enjoy it,” Stevens said. “I love it. Getting an award like that makes you want to do more.”
Stevens’ award is going to be unique thanks to COVID-19. The Y suspended the annual Strong Leader Award dinner event until August 2021 because of the pandemic and, because nobody wanted to deprive her of the celebration, there will not be a new winner announced next year. Instead, the 2021 dinner will honor Stevens and the 19th winner will be celebrated in 2022.
“She was chosen prior to all this starting and then everything changed,” Conley said. “We don’t want her honor and celebration to be any different than our past recipients’.”