Blending together her 30 years of experience in education, recreation and public service, Barbara Fields is committed to building bonds among Fruitland Park residents.
As the new director of community services for the City of Fruitland Park, Fields is working to bring free programs to the community by revamping the city’s programming departments — parks and recreation and the library.
“We’re kind of bridging lifelong learning in two different departments,” she said. “One is in the physical realm with enrichment programs and one is in more of an educational piece with the library. It’s been really nice and refreshing to be able to bridge those together and use all of the background that I have. It just couldn’t have been a more perfect position for me.”
Before joining the City of Fruitland Park, Fields served as director of a Boys & Girls Club and director of programming services and wider opportunities for a Tri-State Girl Scout Council. She holds bachelor’s degrees in both parks and recreation and elementary education, and a master’s degree in educational leadership.
Fields officially joined the Fruitland Park family in July 2024, when she was hired as the Fruitland Park Library’s children and teen program coordinator. Two years later, she was appointed to her current position, overseeing both the library and the parks and recreation department.
Fields has introduced several free community recreation and enrichment programs, including Goat Yoga exercise classes from April to June and the Dancing Through the Decades, a summer dance social from June to August.
Dancing Through the Decades is at 6 p.m. Tuesdays at the Gardenia Community Center, 205 W. Berckman St., Fruitland Park. Each week it highlights a musical era and already has featured the 1970s Disco Groove Night, an ’80s dance party and a Diva and MTV ’80s Night.
Amanda Robinson attended the Aug. 11 Dancing Through the Decades event with her daughter, Adalee. A resident of Fruitland Park for the past 16 years, Amanda said she and her family have been more involved in library and city program since Fields’ arrival.
“She’s brought a lot of great programming and has been great at getting the community together doing things like this,” Amanda said.
A former dance instructor, Fields teaches attendees at least two to three easy dance moves at the start of the social and then sends them off to freestyle for the remainder of the hourlong program.
“I wanted to create a space where we can get together to listen to great music and dance like no one was watching,” she said. “The class is really a no pressure environment. You can dance if you want or not; it’s up to you.”
Beyond recreation programs, Fields leads planning for Fruitland Park’s signature events including the upcoming Brews, Blues & Bites on Oct. 24,
Hometown Christmas on Dec. 11, Love Run 5K on Feb. 6, Night on the Town Progressive Dinner on Feb. 12 and Fruitland Park Day: Founder’s Day Celebration on April 3. There also plans are in the works to host a Bark Bowl dog parade in January at the Bark Park at Northwest Lake Park and a teen skate park event in the summer at the Fruitland Park Skatepark.
“I am kind of re-creating this recreation department pretty much from scratch and I’m trying to really think about what our citizens want,” Fields said. “I’m with the community all the time, so I frequently will ask questions: ‘What would you like to see in your city?’ or ‘What are some things you’re interested in?’ I’m always surveying our residents so we can have a pulse on what they want.”
Kali Grenus, Fruitland Park deputy director of parks and recreation, said Fields’ influence on city operations has had a positive impact.
“She has been able to bring a lot to the table, but also she’s been an integral part in just bringing these teams together, both the library and parks and rec,” Grenus said. “We were two organizations or two departments that kind of functioned on their own and now we do things together. We as teams have gotten a lot better at just communicating within each other’s circles and just really focusing on what we do is always for our community and we’re doing it together.”
Fields hopes the collaborations between departments and the new community events will help Fruitland Park residents get out of the house and discover amenities available to them and meet their neighbors.
For more information about the new and recurring events being hosted by the City of Fruitland Park, visit fruitland park.org.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
