CHOOSE TALLAHASSEE
Making the Case Promoter believes Tallahassee has ‘secret sauce’
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story by STEVE BORNHOFT // photo by THE WORKMANS
he notion that retirees are of only modest value to a local economy and thus not worth targeting with recruitment efforts is demonstrably false, according to the executive director of Choose Tallahassee. “Among people starting new businesses, retirees are one of the largest groups,” said Gregg Patterson. “They buy homes, shop at our stores, go to restaurants and volunteer at nonprofits. They use our health care facilities. They are a big part of our economy, and we welcome them.” And in Tallahassee and Leon County, the number of people who are 55 years old or older is growing as a percentage of the overall population. Choose Tallahassee is at least partly responsible for that trend. The organization, Patterson said, was started in 2011 by a group of volunteers after Capital Health Plan in Tallahassee was named the No. 1 Medicare Health Maintenance Organization in the country. That distinction, coupled with the city’s other assets, justified a promotional effort that would bring Tallahassee to the attention of the 55-plus community, the volunteers concluded. “In 2017, Choose Tallahassee decided to put its foot on the gas and hired me through my business as executive director,” said Patterson, who owns IMS Business, a provider of accounting and back-office services.
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Patterson launched a fundraising effort that promptly generated $100,000, increasing Choose Tallahassee’s cash on hand by more than a hundredfold. The organization hired a marketing firm. It started to figure in media reports. The New York Times did a story on Choose Tallahassee. So, too, did magazines totaling 56 million readers. In 2020, Virginia Glass, a retired Realtor and venerated community servant, agreed to become board chairman. “I was told it would take about two hours a month, and right after I decided to do it, they decided to become a 501(c)(3) and take on all that goes with that,” Glass said. “It really was a lot of work, but it was fulfilling work and the progress we saw as a result of becoming a nonprofit was just phenomenal.” Both Patterson and Glass said the hiring of Blaze Digital Services has had much to do with Choose Tallahassee’s recent success. The company, hired in 2020, redesigned the nonprofit’s website, which now features Live, Work, Play and Learn tabs. “Mostly, people find us via Google searches,” Glass said. “I have always been enthusiastic about Choose Tallahassee because when I was in real estate and dealing with buyers from out of town, I always had to sell Tallahassee before I could sell a house. The website is an extremely helpful vehicle in terms of introducing people to our city.”