I bring this up because each one of you are interested in promoting your own neighborhood, be it an individual community or a neighborhood of a large city.

The point is “Sell your community to your friends.”

There are many good reasons why you should.

1^st… If you are not proud of your neighborhood, you will be much happier elsewhere.

2^nd… If you are proud of it, no one will know unless you talk about it.

3^rd… hearing you talk encourages your neighbors to talk.

4^th… Favorable conversation increases business.  Increased business increases employment. Such is the power of community spirit.

For instance,

Community Spirit runs high in the little Town of Casselberry. Twenty-seven people have moved into our community since it was incorporated nine months ago, and three babies have been born. Over fifty new people have found gainful employment. 

Increased community spirit increases local businesses and brings new business.

New business increases old businesses and increases population. Increased population increases both new and old businesses and increases employment, and round and round the circle you go.

The new people need homes. Over twenty new homes could be rented or sold to the people who are making their living there (in Casselberry). What would twenty new homes mean for local business?  Think of the increased employment it would mean. 

“Sell your community to your friends!”

Hibbard Casselberry loved new toys, gadgets, advertising, and Casselberry - not necessarily in that order. But I guarantee that he would have been pleased to have an avitar of himself. One of the things that his children loved best about him was taking road trips to see new things that he wanted for the town.

The videos of the town that are on this site, came on the heels of "The Jacksonville Story," produced by the City of Jacksonville, when Hayden Burns was Mayor. It must have worked well because Burns went on to become Governor of Florida. Seeing Jacksonville's success must have spurred Hibbard to have Casselberry's story told. The funny thing about the videos - and much of Hibbard's life - was how things came full circle. When he did a video of Casselberry in the 1960s, Hayden Burns was in it - cutting the ribbon to open the Interstate 4 exit in Altamonte Springs.

That was one of Hibbard's later ad-ventures - not the first. He had lots of gadgets before that. Polaroid cameras to soothe his impatient nature, and a hearing aid in the early 1960s, when he needed to hear what people were saying about him. You see, he had lost most of the hearing in his left ear due to the accidental pre-firing of a gun aboard ship when he was in the Navy in World War I. When soft-serve ice cream first came to Seminole County, Casselberry had the second one (Sanford had the first). When Steak n'Shake in Winter Park had a big neon flashing arrow pointing to the restaurant that made it look animated, you bet that Casselberry Realty had one soon thereafter. Of course, Hurricane Donna nearly took it out, but it survived.

So don't stop marketing your business, no matter what hard times fall upon you. Ingenuity, advertising, and persistence kept Casselberry growing through good times and bad... and they will do the same for you too.