Plant City Helped Shape The Life of Linda Heckenkamp
In January, Linda Heckenkamp became Senior Planner for the City of Plant City’s Planning and Zoning Division.
Linda’s biological parents grew up in ultra-traditional Chinese families. Her father’s family had been wealthy landowners who moved from Hong Kong after Congress passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.
Linda’s mother gave birth to her in New York City. The family moved to Tampa just before Linda began kindergarten. Her father abused everyone around him, but never suffered any consequences because his family continually bailed him out of situations.
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) took Linda into foster care at nine years old. She never returned to her biological family. Her first foster placement was in Plant City near Drew Street and Evers Street. The 1300 square-foot, two bedroom, one bath home housed seven girls between ages 9 and 19, plus the foster parents. “Many girls cycled through that foster home while I tried to stay under the radar and not act out in any way for fear of being moved to another foster home that could have been worse,” Linda said. She lived there until her sophomore year at Plant City High School (PCHS) when the home shut down. Turnover is very high in the foster care system for both foster parents and professional staff. During her nine years in foster care, DCF moved Linda to three different homes and changed the social workers managing her case 23 times.
“My childhood and young adult life had always been difficult to say the least, but I was able to overcome my personal challenges from growing up in foster care and the lack of stable parental figures because the community of Plant City saw the potential I had and provided me with numerous outlets to just be a normal kid and a teenager,” Linda said. “School was my outlet to make my teachers and community proud.”
At Tomlin Middle School, Linda played the viola in the orchestra. And she won a $300 savings bond in a Veterans of Foreign Wars essay contest.
When she was 14, Linda took a job at a shop called Creative Flower Designs by Glenn Mathias. The location on Alsobrook Street was near enough for her to walk to work. “I really enjoyed it because of Glenn and the ladies in the shop, specially two elderly sisters, Eloise Zambito and Lorraine Mathias who were nicknamed Weezey and Tootie. They would always give me food, and Tootie taught me how to cook corn on the cob in the microwave.” When DCF moved Linda to another foster home in Lithia, she had no way to commute to the flower shop and had to stop working there.
Though she lived in Lithia, the School District allowed Linda to remain a student at PCHS through granting her permission to ride a bus that picked up special needs students from all around Hillsborough County and dropped them off at PCHS. “Even though I had to move foster homes I was able to remain within my same supportive community, classmates, and teachers…,” Linda said. “This was a critical moment that kept my sense of normalcy and permanency intact.” In high school she joined Future Business Leaders of America, and took part in their public speaking competitions. She also involved herself in Student Government and served twice as class president.
While living in Lithia, Linda spent four hours commuting every school day. “When I began riding the Special Education bus, my perspective on my situation really changed,” she said. “I stopped having any notion of ever feeling sorry for myself and became even more involved in school and volunteering. By riding the bus with students that had Down syndrome and seeing how happy and kind they were to me even though they had their own challenges led me to realize you can still be kind and supportive to others regardless of your own situation.” After this experience, Linda volunteered with Special Olympics, and Best Buddies International, which serves students that have intellectual and physical disabilities by connecting them to one-to-one friendships with other students. For her contribution to these organizations the Florida Holocaust Museum gave Linda the Anne Frank Humanitarian Award, “Although it is my life that was forever changed for the better by those experiences,” she said. In addition, Linda also took a role as a Student Representative Board Member for the United Food Bank & Services of Plant City.
Academically, Linda graduated from PCHS in 2008 then entered Florida International University to earn a Bachelor’s in Public Administration. “Having grown up in Florida’s foster care system, which is privatized by the way, I discovered there is such a thing as good government—the kind that fosters a safe community and opportunities regardless of age, race, gender or creed.”
After graduating from FIU, Linda served two terms with AmeriCorps to provide vulnerable communities with direct national service, such as natural disaster preparedness and critical home repairs. She then completed a Masters in Landscape Architecture with a focus in Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis in 2017.
“All of my personal and professional accomplishments happened because I was exposed to so many different backgrounds, professions, and supportive experiences beginning in Plant City and then beyond,” Linda said. “I choose to work in public policy and urban planning and design because I feel these are the fields that directly affect our community and residents on a day-to-day basis. My goal is to create and connect people to livable and resilient communities.” In the future she would like to pursue a PhD in Urban Planning to help teach future urban planners.
“My professional journey started with a walk to Glenn’s flower shop which turned into finding my forever family,” Linda said. Unforseen by anyone, the Zambito family legally adopted her when she was 21. “So, I started my first job working with my future grandma, great-aunt, and second cousin without even knowing it.”
“My adoptive family were all raised here, and I was raised here,” Linda added. “I could not be the person I am today without the community of Plant City. We are all responsible for keeping the beloved characteristics of our city alive. A community of strangers, who eventually became my forever family, raised me and imprinted their work ethic, dedication, and perseverance on me. Plant City is the first place ever to show me what it means to be a community and how to contribute and support one another. We can all have bad days, bad attitudes or feel sorry for ourselves. That is easy to do, but having compassion for yourself and others while doing the right thing and supporting our community members, our environment—our home—is the biggest legacy we can leave for our future generations.”
May is Foster Care Awareness Month.
