“THE WILDERNESS”
“Under his hand, the wilderness… bore fruit…”
Reads the tombstone of one Dr. Philip Phillips…
Quite odd to think Orlando as a wilderness or… minute population of 2000 when he moved here…
I’ll circle back to that in a minute. This moment… is a celebration of 150 years!
Of a legacy and life ripe with impact season after season… stretching from social services to healthcare.
Foundational flourishing for the future of Central Floridians. Fruit… is evidence of its tree…
And of its roots. This here is a salute…
To the small-town doctor from Tennessee who saw… a citrus industry rising like kites… in the sunshine despite… previous freezes… and failures. Here’s a common quote of encouragement for the risk takers…
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Success is about learning from mistakes. All you stakeholders in Orange… and Osceola counties. Count on this philosophy… modeled by Doc of resilience and innovation.
If not for Doc, we have no maturation…
No juice in the electrodes to the heart of a peninsula…
No jolts rejuvenating non-profits…
No Dr. Phillips High School… hospital… or fine neighborhood to dine…
No Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts… A house designed for voices like mine. The list… is long with limited time to harvest every kind of citrus… or good work grounding us like gravity…
Give the benefit of the doubt that good seeds grow out of Dr. Phillips Charities…
His height was 5’ 7”
A shrub of a man, but under his hand… the wilderness… bore fruit.
First land purchase was an orange grove on the Southeast side of Sand Lake…
The rest is history…
Raised infantries of infant trees… from seeds to the nursery…
Til’ planted and cultivated in groves…
Drove the tractors and oversaw irrigation… and the packing house. Product to market…
Every aspect of the business was his department…
Til’ it was sold to Granada Groves…
Paid…
Granada Groves later became Minute Maid…
The man made 58 million in today’s shade of green…
Graft that with commercial real estate and a small town becomes a lucid dream… A vivid scene with infrastructure for well-being. See healing… often happens beyond the hospital.
It stems from the branches that give back to the ground out of which it was found.
And what we find here… are sweet memories, present, and future. When you peel back the layers…
Of what it takes to get nearly 9 million to thrive here,
one must ask the question…
What will be said of me? and this community? in 150 years.
City of Orlando, Poet Laureate
Shawn Welcome