In the span of two years, Vicky Saunders has helped lay the foundation that has sparked a cultural renaissance in Plant City.
Her boyfriend, Arley Smude, was a Plant City native and in 2016 was ready to return to his hometown. Saunders joined him and quickly realized Plant City was lacking a social media presence that would help highlight all that made it unique. She immediately created Instagramers of Plant City, an account that now has nearly 5,000 followers, to be able show off what was going on in her new home.
“It was a way to get to know that city I was going to be living in,” Saunders said. “Arely hadn’t lived in Plant City for a while because of school and his job abroad so it was a refresher course for him as well. Even though I haven’t grown up in Plant City, being able to show the community that has been here for generations new people and places though a different point of view, that’s very special.”
Though she is a trained medical professional and spends most of her time working at a hospital, Saunders was swept up in events around town and getting to know the residents that are the undercurrent of the city.
The Instagram account was intended for people from Plant City to know what their town offered in the form of unique events and special goods and to act as a platform to give a view of Plant City from a variety of different experiences. As the years have passed Saunders said she has had countless comments or messages from people who have lived in town their entire lives and had no idea certain things existed.
Though it is fun to get to explore Plant City, the purpose is so much more than having a good time. If she can let
people know of a service or business in their community, maybe those people will go and support them. Many places come and go because people simply don’t know they exist. She said she hopes her account, in even a small way, is able to help keep theses gems in the community.
The account allowed her to take the pulse of the city and she quickly realized it was on the cusp of a revolution. Everyone was talking about change, whether it was wanting to see downtown revitalized, to create a collaboration in the arts community or to create a thriving nightlife.
When she and Smude began attending the Lakeland Creative Makers group they ran into several Plant City residents who were making the trek each month to tap into that cultural community. They all came together and created MAKE Plant City, which they hoped would acts as a facility to connect people to local creative makers.
They were tired of watching individuals struggle to create change and decided to create a platform where that type of collaboration would be easily accessible.
“With the IGers account and MAKE we can feature businesses and locations that people may not have gone to on their own,” Saunders said. “It’s an opportunity to to rise together, to breathe life back into our town and make people aware of what Plant City has to offer.”
Saunders spends her days performing CAT scans at a hospital. She said she has always loved science and, though she wanted to go to school and pursue an art related field, she was “too scared to take the leap” so she majored in radiological sciences instead. She loves helping others, loves getting to work one-on-one with people, but said she absolutely adores the work she’s getting to do in Plant City.
Her passion and admiration of advertisers and marketing strategies caused her to spend time delving into photography, studying branding and listening to podcasts on effective social media networking.
Though her free time was limited, she filled it helping local businesses run their social media accounts and finding new ways to highlight hidden character of Plant City. She was planning on pursing a masters when the Instagram account took off. It was a gamble, but she decided to forgo obtaining another degree and to dive into this exciting world she was creating in her new home.
“I just decided I could do this, that I could succeed,” Saunders said. “We live in a time now where we can teach ourselves anything. You can do so much without having to have a degree. It’s been so reassuring to meet so many people that aren’t doing what they went to school for, that are happy pursuing their dreams.”
Her hobby became her focus and she began immersing herself in learning all about the industry and how to become the very best at what she loved. She’s currently running 12 social media accounts and is hosting monthly events for a variety of groups like MAKE and the Craft Beer and Coloring nights at The Corner Store.
She’s learned first hand just how welcoming and caring the community can be as she continues to work to weave a bridge between organizations and gets to know more and more niche groups that call Plant City home.
“One of the reasons why I love Plant City is it’s a small town with a big sense of community,” Saunders said. “It’s super special that I live in a community that if you dream it, you can do it. Because of Plant City I was shown I can do a lot more things than I thought I could. Plant City has changed my life.”
Change is inevitable, she said, though the path that change takes is all up to those who get involved. She said she hopes to see more voices speak up and help direct that change to what benefits the community as a whole.
“We could see great things happen here, but there’s a gap between talking about great things and doing it,” Saunders said. “You have to put in the hard work and make it happen. But you don’t have to do it alone. There’s this quote I love by Sarah Ban Breathnach that says, ‘The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.’”
