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A pregnant Charleen Schmitt had a different kind of reaction when she arrived at her new Summerfield home in the still undiscovered community of Lakewood Ranch in 1995.
She went up to the front door, turned to her husband, Bob, and ... cried.
"Yes, I was crying," Charleen says now, 30 years later. "I had looked around. We had just bought into the cow fields. We were in the middle of nowhere, and I was pregnant."
It didn't help that Bob Schmitt was a planner for Manatee County who knew what was coming in Lakewood Ranch. At that time, it was a little scary. And they had a 3-year-old son, Derek, at home as well.
"We were living in west Bradenton after we had moved to Florida from Chicago in 1986," Bob Schmitt said. "But we wanted to relocate, and there was this DRI project. I saw what they proposed to do (in Lakewood Ranch).
"John Clarke (who was CEO of Schroder-Manatee Ranch at the time) was in charge and he had developed The Meadows. Charleen and I were expecting and I had looked at what the schools in the area were rated.
"Our house was the first in Summerfield Park on Meandering Way, and we weren't ready for Lakewood Ranch. There was nothing here. We would go back to Cortez to eat at Demetrios."
Charleen's tears didn't last long.
"The park already was there and we used it all the time," Charleen Schmitt said. "We had been here three months when Kirsten was born at Blake Hospital.
It was a landmark moment — Nov. 20, 1995 — for not just the Schmitts, but the entire community. Kirsten was the first baby born to a Lakewood Ranch family. A brick is placed in front of the entry to Lakewood Ranch Town Hall that notes "KIRSTEN SCHMITT LWR's FIRST BORN."
She, of course, became the first person in Lakewood Ranch who didn't come from somewhere else.
All the first families of Lakewood Ranch had their own landmark moments that they shared with their special group of neighbors.
"The first 50 families that lived here, we all were close," Charleen Schmitt said. "We all did the first Easter Egg hunt. We were entrenched in each other's families. We watched each other's kids, and there were men's basketball games at the park."
She said it helped that developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch was doing everything it could to make sure those first families were happy. She said SMR provided security around the new neighborhood, and made little gestures, such as, during that first year, dropping off watermelons at the first 10 homes in the neighborhood.
"It was the sweetest thing," Charleen Schmitt said. "SMR was so welcoming."
She said it is a feeling that has carried over 30 years later. After Hurricane Debby brought record-breaking rain to Lakewood Ranch, she said her neighbors were all out checking on each other, just as they would have done 30 years ago.
"The community feel is still there," she said.
Although the big question at the time was whether Lakewood Ranch would build a new high school, Bob Schmitt had confidence that SMR would follow through on its promises, including the promise to have new schools. In 1994, Bob had taken Charleen to Lake Uihlein, which was surrounded by ... nothing. SMR representatives were telling him to picture a downtown area there.
Lakewood Ranch and the Schmitts grew together.
After three years in their first home, the Schmitts moved to a bigger home in Summerfield that had a pool. They didn't consider leaving the neighborhood that had made Charleen cry.
"We thought it was developing the way it was advertised," Bob Schmitt said. "The kids were entrenched in the schools and the next neighborhoods were developing. I became heavily involved in the Legacy Golf Course's men's golf league. Then the town center came, and the hospital came.
"They told us what they were going to do ... and they did it."
Derek and Kirsten went through the school system and eventually graduated from Lakewood Ranch High School.
Kirsten married Trevor Lovett in 2018. They have a child, 3-year Emma, who was born at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.
"It was like a hotel," Kirsten said of giving birth at the local hospital.
Although the couple still loves Lakewood Ranch, they live in Parrish because they feel they can get more home for the money. They both work in Palmetto.
Even so, their love affair with Lakewood Ranch continues.
"Everything is convenient here," Kirsten said "I hope we can watch Parrish grow into the same thing."
Of course, they continually visit her parents in Summerfield and they participate in Lakewood Ranch's MVP Sports and Social programming, including it's volleyball league at Waterside Place.
Kirsten will always have fond memorials of growing up in Lakewood Ranch.
"There was a lot of construction, but I thought it was fun," Kirsten said. "And there were lots of cows."
They take their 3-year-old daughter Emma to Lakewood Ranch programming, and said she participated in the Happy Feet soccer program at Premier Sports Campus. Kirsten is pregnant again with a daughter, to be named Hallie, on the way."
Her older brother, Derek, was part of the first graduating class of 2011 at Lakewood Ranch High that spent all four years in the high school. Kirsten graduated four years later in 2015.
Derek and his wife, Stephanie, live in Greenbrook and, love Lakewood Ranch as well. Stephanie grew up in Bradenton, but was totally OK with the move to Lakewood Ranch after marrying Derek.
"We talked about where we wanted to live, and we both said, 'Lakewood Ranch.'" Stephanie said. "I liked being close to both his parents. And Lakewood Ranch has everything you need. All the schools are close and my mom wants to move this way."
Bob Schmitt has confidence SMR will continue to improve Lakewood Ranch through its next 30 years.
"What they built at Waterside, what they built at Main Street, was fantastic," Bob Schmitt said. "Would I tell my brother to move here? Yes, I would.
"We don't have to go to west Bradenton anymore."
Would the Schmitts move?
"I guess we would think about having a (temporary) place in a cooler environment," Bob Schmitt said. "But no, our kids are here."
