Recent News

Age Friendly Lakeland has two meetings scheduled for the month of July:

• Leadership Team Meeting – Thursday, July 18th at 11:30 a.m. at Kelly Recreational Complex
• AFL Committee Meeting – Wednesday, July 24th at 11:30 a.m. at City Hall in the Commission Conference Room (3rd Floor)

Age-Friendly Lakeland is a committee of Lakeland Vision that is addressing the citizen’s goal to ensure Lakeland Seniors experience a high quality of life in a variety of living situations, are involved in the community, and have good access to services including senior centers, health care, continuing education, and public transportation.

For more information, please contact the Age Friendly Lakeland Coordinator, Theresa Reiter at theresa@agefriendlylakeland.com

The Lakeland Vision Board of Directors met on June 6th for a regularly scheduled meeting.  The board does not meet in July.  The LV Executive Committee will meet on July 18th at 11:00 a.m.

The next board meeting will take place on Thursday, August 1st at 8:30 a.m. at The Polk Museum of Art 2nd Floor Library.  All board meetings are open to the public.

Board members, Kimberly Elmhorst and Sara Roberts McCarley, will be providing the members of the Junior League of Greater Lakeland a presentation which will allow them to actively participate in the community survey which will guide the future planning in the Lakeland community.  The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5th at the Scorosis Building on Lake Morton.

Vision Update Chair, Pat Steed, will be making a presentation to the Downtown Lakeland Rotary Club on Tuesday, March 5th at 12:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church on Lake Morton.  The presentation will allow members to participate in the survey by voting on the priorities of Lakeland Vision’s current Vision Document.  All input collected throughout this grassroots campaign will help guide future planning of the Lakeland Community.

Lakeland Vision Cygnet Award Presentation –
Tuesday, February 12, 2019 @ The Imperial Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony in D Minor

LAKELAND, FL – Lakeland Vision is proud to present its signature Cygnet Award to Barry Friedman of LkldNow on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at the Imperial Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Symphony in D Minor’ at the RP Funding Center located at 701 W Lime St, Lakeland, FL 33815 (during the performance’s intermission).

At Lakeland Vision, we are passionate about advancing our mission and celebrating successes. Our organization collaborates with a broad range of community stakeholders to implement a comprehensive action plan shaped by the community’s own vision of its future.

The Lakeland Vision Cygnet Award was unveiled to the community in 2017 and is bestowed upon companies, organizations and individuals that strive to achieve our strategic goals in order to impact our community in positive and significant ways.

We are proud to present the first Cygnet Award of 2019 to Barry Friedman, Founder/Editor/Publisher of LkldNow. Barry exemplifies the characteristics of a true visionary and models the passion for Lakeland that the Lakeland Vision Board of Directors seeks to recognize through this award program. Barry has poured countless hours of time, energy and service into keeping citizens informed of news, current events, activities and initiatives and LkldNow fulfills a significant number of goals and strategies outlined in the community’s Vision Document (which can be found at www.LakelandVision.org).

Past recipients of the Cygnet Award include The Lakeland Rotary Clubs for The Rotary Playground in Hernando’s Landing Project and the Rotary Concert Series, April Mucci, Owner/Editor/Publisher of LakelandMom.com and the Lakes Education/Action Drive (LEAD) for the annual Lakeland Cardboard Boat Challenge.

Any company, organization and/or individual with a project that meets and fulfills portions of the community’s Vision is encouraged to apply for a Cygnet Award. Inquiries may be sent to Executive Director, Laura Rodriguez at Lrodriguez@lakelandvision.org.

The Lakeland Vision Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, February 7th at 8:30 a.m. at the Polk Museum of Art (2nd Floor-Library).  The board will review the Vision Update community presentation, vote on the 2019 slate of officers and welcome new board members for the 2019-2021 term.

The board of directors hold their meetings on the first Thursday of each month.

Come on down to Munn Park this Friday evening (February 1st) for the February First Friday which has a theme of “Get Healthy, Lakeland”!  What better way to gauge the health of a community than providing all citizens the opportunity to engage?  Stop by the Lakeland Vision booth which will be on North Kentucky Avenue (directly in front of the LDDA/Lakeland Vision office at 117 North Kentucky Ave.) and take our Lakeland Survey.  Ipads will be available to rank YOUR priorities for the future of our city.  It takes five minutes or less!

First Friday is a popular recurring event at Historic Munn Park in Downtown Lakeland which provides participant FREE family friendly entertainment, activities, live music, art receptions, a car shows, and, of course, the chance to check out a great, locally-owned restaurant or retail establishment.

Stop by to see us!

Lakeland Vision will have a booth at Pig Fest on Saturday, January 26th from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  Pig Fest attendees will have the opportunity to provide input into the update of our current community vision by taking a survey while enjoying some of the best BBQ around!  Please find us under the purple tent this Saturday.

Pig Fest is a event hat brings together 150 competition barbecue teams for a weekend of good eatin’, good friends, and good tunes to benefit Lakeland-area charities as we kick off the 23rd Annual Lakeland Pigfest!  Pigfest will take place at Sun n’ Fun which is located at 4175 Medulla Rd, Lakeland, FL 33811.

Lakeland’s Education Committee will be meeting on Friday, January 25th at 5:00 p.m. at the Lakeland Vision Office (117 North Kentucky Drive 33801).  The committee will continue exploring one of our Vision priorities of finding ways the Lakeland community can better support the public schools in our city.  To learn more about the education related vision goals/strategies, please check out our Vision Document.