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Homes

Move leads to mom's dream job

Dawn Turner found a place to live and to work when her family settled in FishHawk Ranch.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published February 11, 2005

LITHIA - Serendipity seems to follow Dawn Turner like her Shih Tzu, Ching. She met her English-born husband, Mark, 34, a decade ago after he won a free airline ticket from London to Orlando.

They locked eyes in a bar and barely parted company for a week.

Short version: They fell in love and got married.

Long version: They now live in FishHawk Ranch, a 1,500-acre planned community in southeastern Hillsborough County.

Even longer version: Dawn, once a stay-at-home mom, is now the community's program director, responsible for planning activities at the clubhouses and pools.

Dawn, 35, describes it as her "dream job."

"My friends say they can't believe I'm doing this because it's so perfect for me," she says. "I've always been known for planning lots of parties and get-togethers in my personal life. I love anything I can do to bring people together and have a good time."

She landed the position after her enthusiasm for her newfound community spilled over into helping organize back-to-school and fall festivals, and a successful cancer walk-a-thon.

FishHawk's homeowners association took notice of her passionate volunteerism and hired her full time.

"The people here are extremely active and respond," Dawn explains. "That's why this job is so ideal for me."

On a cool, weekday morning she stands on the driveway of their house with Ching, her tiny mop of a dog. Deaf and slow moving, Ching rolls on the driveway, soaking up the afternoon sun, never straying far from his mistress' ankle.

Mark, a field service engineer with Philips Medical Systems, lingers nearby, too, getting ready to head to the gym. He travels widely by car for his job that takes him to hospitals along Florida's west coast. The location - about 10 miles from Interstate 75 - works extremely well for him, he says.

So does the fun stuff.

"I wanted to live in a planned community with a trail system and a pool," Mark recalls. "I didn't want to put a pool in myself."

The Turners, who moved from Orlando to Tampa in 1998, originally put a deposit on a house a few miles away but changed their minds after driving through FishHawk.

Their one-story house is funky, humble and, at the same time, charming. At 1,629 square feet, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a screened porch and blissful views of conservation trails. They bought it for $115,000 in July 1999 when the development was still a hint of what it is today.

"It consisted of one clubhouse, one softball field and one pool," recalls Dawn, who jokes that their son grew up watching construction trucks hauling roof trusses. "The trail system was already here, and that was a draw for us."

Now the community boasts more than 2,000 homes, three clubhouses and five pools, including the new Aquatic Club with its 36-foot water slide winding through a faux mountain and a "walk-in" lagoon pool.

Dawn's office is in the adjacent clubhouse.

"Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of that waterfall, and it just makes me stop and think about how thankful I am," she says.

A large community park is also in the works, with a neighborhood of city-style houses that will surround it. The park will be the heart of the community, where residents will gather for art festivals, jazz concerts and picnics.

"I don't leave here for anything - I love it," Dawn says. "My son goes to school here, I work here, I even go to the grocery store on FishHawk Boulevard."

Over the Christmas holidays, the Turners even took a one-week cruise in the western Caribbean with a group of their FishHawk neighbors.

"They sold 50 cabins to neighborhood residents," Dawn says of the trip organized by the FishHawk travel club.

The development continues to appeal to the couple because of its myriad amenities such as gourmet cooking and fitness classes, a community softball league and a travel club.

"It's also a good place for children," Dawn said.

The Turners' son, Nathan, 6, a kindergartener at nearby FishHawk Creek Elementary School, practically lives outside, exploring the development's 20 miles of trails on his bicycle and taking tennis lessons on the community's courts. He sleeps in a bedroom with leafy-green walls and shelves thick with his well-thumbed books and beloved bug catcher. On the wall hangs a map stuck with pins showing everywhere in the world the family has traveled.

Nathan sleeps in his grandfather's childhood bed, a prized possession Dawn carted with her from Winter Haven, where she grew up.

Dawn, who loves to decorate and collect art, decked out the house in an "earthy and environmental" color scheme - a palette that features colors such as captain blue and deep mustard yellow.

The walls bloom with original artwork, much of it from Orlando artist and friend Yvonne Berbale. Dawn describes her decorating style as "eclectic and funky combined with traditional antiques."

She filled her grandmother's antique china cabinet with richly colored art glass vases.

"When we travel, I try to bring a piece of art back from wherever we've been," says Dawn of recent trips that have taken them to England, the Grand Canyon and coastal South Carolina.

Though their house sometimes feels small, the Turners made a decision to stay put so they could spend any disposable income on travel. Besides, Dawn says, they spend so little time at home that they don't need a bigger one.

"I pretty much live at the clubhouse," she says.

FishHawk will probably hold them forever.

"I don't see an end in sight. My son can run around between houses, ride his bikes on the trails. I just don't have to worry a whole lot."

Dawn knows that serendipity follows her, that the universe, at least for the moment, has smiled.

Sweetly.

On the kitchen counter, a dozen red roses from Mark. Curled at her feet, her little Ching.

"To live and work in a place I love," she adds, "I don't know what else I could ask for."

[Last modified February 10, 2005, 09:09:06]