Business & Healthcare Both Thriving In The Heartland

On the first “day out”, for 2018-2019 class of Youth Leadership Highlands with the Mason G. Smoak Foundation, we visited Florida Hospital, Citra-Pak and Sebring Soda and Ice CreamShop. We listened to some great speakers at Florida Hospital, which will soon be AdventHealth. It was clear to me they provide great healthcare to Highlands County and have an excellent staff of leaders.

Our next stop, Citra-Pak, is an innovative business where they make frozen fruit snacks. It was very cold inside! I feel fortunate to have been given the opportunity to be able to tour and watch the packaging process and I was surprised this type of business is in Highlands County. Finally, the soda shop was a fun stop. There were so many sodas to choose from it was hard to pick which one I wanted to try! I enjoyed the day, learned a lot and got to build new friendships I might not have otherwise had a chance to develop. Overall, I believe healthcare and business opportunities in the Heartland are thriving.