Rabun County Parkbench

Roger and Laura Glenn moved to Rabun County full-time in September of 2020. They were looking for a new mission. Roger was on his ‘terminal leave’ after thirty-one years of service in the United States Army and the couple was excited to begin their life in the North Georgia Mountains as Realtors® at Poss Realty. But they wanted to do something special for the community. “Life is a team sport. In my view, success is defined by whether you focus on yourself or choose to help others. A servant’s mentality isn’t just a catchy management phrase. It’s a moral obligation. We chose real estate given that we could partner, and spend time working together after all those years spent apart. But we wanted to do something special to help recognize the natural beauty and extraordinary people that define what is most special about Rabun County,” says Roger. “We were brainstorming ideas to help spread the good news about Rabun County and focus on the special places, businesses, people and organizations in the community. We knew we wanted some sort of web or social media site dedicated to Rabun. A couple of days later, the National Association of Realtors announced their strategic investment in a young company that marketed turn-key community websites to real estate professionals, and it didn’t take long before we were signing the contract for what is now the Rabun County Parkbench site.” (parkbench.com/rabun-county). Scott Poss helped Laura and Roger make plans for how they could utilize the site and reach organizations to feature on the website (and their YouTube channel). By December, they were shooting their first video feature with Dolly Ramey at Your Time Fitness in Clayton, and since then they’ve done almost sixty videos/features in less than six months. They also have shot a couple of special features for Explore Rabun, and recorded a couple dozen videos for Celebrate Clayton. We asked Roger about how they select the organizations they feature and got a surprising answer. “Well, we’ve asked businesses that we were familiar with as customers/patrons, but the majority have been organizations that we learned about through social media or who reached out to us through the website and asked to be interviewed. We try to mix larger, established organizations with some very small or new businesses. Our goal is to help them tell their story to people who live in, or love (his word for visit) Rabun County.” He says initially some people are suspicious that they were selling the service and that it would be expensive. But as he explains, the cost is ‘very reasonable’.

“It’s a free community service. Nothing, nada, zip, zero. There is no revenue model for the features or advertising events, news, or offering discounts (deals) on the website. We’ve underwritten 100% of that cost,” stated in his disarming, animated fashion. I asked them why. “I’m very transparent and unapologetic that this website helps us get our names out there as real estate agents, but the bigger purpose is supporting the community. Every real estate agent in the county benefits from the story of Rabun being told to others - whether it’s to help inform, educate or promote. That’s why we’ve tried to include people and organizations like Chad Nichols and the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office. We’ve been overwhelmed at how appreciative businesses are - especially small businesses who have very limited budgets. It quickly became exactly the type of mission and service to the community that we could pour our hearts and souls into, and as a result we’ve met some amazing people and been embraced by the community.” Roger is generally very understated regarding his military career, but when pressed he’ll let Laura tell you that he’s a decorated combat veteran who retired only after a chronic back disease made further service impossible. He retired at the rank of Colonel with two overseas deployments (Iraq and Guantanamo Bay) and a slew of medals including the Bronze Star. Service is not only something he’s used to, it’s his source of inspiration. His enemies and choice of weapon has changed, but his tenacity and energy are simply channeled toward other challenges. His desire is that the couple can use this website to serve the people of Rabun County to include its future citizens and visitors. He looks forward to telling the story of more businesses, to include some of the lesser known history of the county, and helping to focus the community on solving some difficult issues like the Aging population, poverty, and the digital divide. You’ll likely see him at some point, wearing his signature brown leather hat and carrying his tripod, en route to doing another interview. But if you ask him the secret to the quality content they’ve produced, he’ll quickly site the video editing skills of Laura and the attention to detail she puts into every feature. She uses a software application to edit the raw videos and add pictures, other videos and even music. The finished product is something most organizations share on their own web and/or social media sites and they take advantage of the other features - like the ability to promote a local event, announce something newsworthy, or offer a discount to customers. The sites subscriber base has grown significantly, but the Glenns are looking forward to cooperating with other local organizations like Forward Rabun, the Clayton Tribune, and this magazine to help brag about Rabun County and let people know what’s going on. He calls this concept ‘cross-pollination’ or simply ‘synergy’. When Laura and Roger aren’t helping people sell or buy a home or land around North Georgia or making one of their trademark videos, they enjoy a range of outdoor activities, spending time with friends and family, and attending local events where they can enjoy themselves - even if they find it very hard to resist snapping a few pictures and/or recording a short video. In a short period of time, Rabun County has gotten into their DNA, and we’re sure glad this retired Military Police officer and his wife decided to make this their new home.