Building Our Future with Every Voice [Part 1]

Editor's Note: DeSoto County Ahead is a result of many months of trust-building through purposeful and meaningful facilitated conversations. During these conversations, eight themes and twelve aspirational actions to uplift the community were identified. The goal is to move from merely recognizing aspirations to taking actionable steps.

Energizing. Joyful. Crowded.

Those are three words to describe the DeSoto County Ahead Community Update Dinner and Resource Fair on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Why those three words?

Originally scheduled for last November but postponed due to hurricanes in our region, the DeSoto County Ahead community event was eagerly anticipated. For weeks, The Patterson Foundation encouraged attendance, sharing updates across social media, newsletters, blogs, and word of mouth. The goal: To fill every seat at the Turner Center in Arcadia.

All of that work clearly paid off!

On Wednesday night, people and organizations joined us throughout DeSoto County — and even beyond — to be part of this special occasion. At first, attendees trickled in one by one, then in groups of three and four, and before we knew it, the Turner Center was full. People traveled near and far to learn more about their community, explore available resources, connect with familiar and new faces, and understand TPF’s efforts to help DeSoto County shape its own future.

Whether in the lobby or the main room, the Turner Center was crowded with people who cared about their community and wanted to show up and support the work happening. You could feel the energy as individuals visited the 67 exhibitors that were part of the resource fair, stamping their passports along the way to win a gift card and get their names entered into a raffle. You could see the joy in the faces of the student volunteers who raced back and forth to lend a helping hand or who found a “free” moment to get their passports filled, too, as they engaged with familiar or old faces.

TPF is known for doing meaningful work within the four-county region and beyond, but an important aspect of that work is joy. That night, smiles were all around, laughter could be heard all over, and people ooed and awed over the anticipated barbeque dinner.

We couldn’t close out the night without sharing some information — it’s all about balancing the sparkle with the substance. With people energized from the connections they had made and filled with delicious dinner, our remaining time together focused on updating everyone on what’s transpired since we last met in that very same room in October 2023. 

That’s also the time when Cheri Coryea, initiative lead for DeSoto County Ahead, announced the theme for TPF’s work in DeSoto: Building Our Future with Every Voice! 

Without knowing it, the nearly 400 people there had been part of this growing movement that was encapsulated in those six words. Whether they participated in one or more of the community conversations, attended the roundtable conversations, attended the keynote speeches, or shared their aspirations for DeSoto County’s future, they had been part of this movement to shape a positive future. If they were showing up for the first time and hearing about the work for the first time, they were encouraged to join the movement by sharing their voices and aspirations.