- November 5, 2024
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As Meagan Copeland, Chelsea Barney and John Birney Jr. strolled along the sidewalk near Palm Coast’s Central Park, they reminisced about the changes they saw in their community.
“This used to be all trees and woods,” Copeland said while taking note of the number of buildings that popped up in the area.
Copeland, Barney and Birney Jr. grew up together. They went to elementary school, middle school and high school together. They watched Flagler County change each year: growing, expanding, booming.
And after the trio got their respective degrees, they came back.
Barney, who is the president of 4C’s Trucking and Excavation, served as the chair of the county’s Young Professionals Group in 2017. Birney Jr., an apprentice with JBirney Financial, is set to be 2018’s chair, while Copeland, the senior marketing strategist for Florida Hospital Flagler, will serve as his vice chair.
In March, the group helped raise $30,000 for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which serves 1,300 children in the county. And in September, YPG helped raise $15,000 for local organizations at the Farm to Table Dinner.
But the group is more than just community service, according to Copeland.
“There’s something for everyone here,” she said. “Some people only like to go to socials and network with people. Some want to be more involved in the philanthropy part by raising money and being involved in the community. And there’s also people who want to learn. That’s kind of what we are: all of those things together. All three of us have different mindsets, and we’re all coming together to have this diverse group that can serve all different areas and different individuals.”
Birney Jr.’s goal as the chair of YPG in 2018 is to build off of what Barney has already accomplished, including being more involved with Youth Leadership Flagler.
YLF is an organization dedicated to showing the different sectors of the county's workforce to the area’s high school students.
“Our goal is to get them to go off, get educated, get your degree or training, but then come back here and live and work and play in Flagler County,” he said. “We want to kind of empower the younger side of our county.”
That’s been the biggest challenge: Shedding the idea that Flagler is a town solely for an older demographic. But that idea is untrue, Birney Jr., Barney and Copeland insisted.
They’re here, and they’re here to stay.
“It’s important to inspire people to come back here,” Barney said. “That’s what we want to change.”
