OCOEE, Fla. – Here at News 6, we get a lot of emails about neighborhood homeowners associations.
Most are complaints that go to our investigative or consumer units.
But residents of one Ocoee neighborhood felt so strongly about someone on their board, they nominated her for the News 6 Getting Results award.
Kellie Beck was elected as vice president of The Greens at Forest Lake Homeowners Association about a year ago when the owners took over from the developer.
“It’s fun. I’m an operations manager for work. So, the HOA was kind of just like another project for me,” Beck said. “You hear all of these horror stories about living in an HOA. And I was like, well, I know if I joined the board, I could help mitigate some of that. I can protect the experience for homeowners.”
Beck’s neighbors say she’s doing just that. Several wrote in to nominate her for the News 6 Getting Results Award.
Judith Guimaraes says living in a small community means everyone knows their neighbors.
“I think it’s hard to find a community that communicates as much as we do,” Guimaraes said. “And I really think it’s because of Kellie.”
HOA president Julian Delgado said Beck has been responsible for many of the neighborhood initiatives including a recently completed dog park.
“She is the heartbeat of this HOA and of this community,” Delgado said, adding that Beck is always ready to answer resident’s questions or find the answer if she doesn’t know it.
Beck created a residents’ handbook to help owners and renters navigate everything from garbage pick-up day to knowing their government representatives.
“It’s always with the community as a whole in mind,” Delgado said. “She does much more than you would expect from anyone.”
Angela Pyne calls Beck a one-man band who gets things done. Pyne said when the neighborhood learned of a new development being built right next door, one that would have direct impacts on The Greens at Forest Lake, Beck kept everyone in the know with regular updates.
“She’s very informative,” Pyne said. “She lets us know, as homeowners, every single step of the way, what’s going on.”
Beck helped start a food truck night for the neighborhood, she created social media accounts to keep everyone informed and she even created a document to help people new to the area understand hurricane preparation.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Beck explained. “It’s exciting to know that what I’m doing is directly impacting people. It’s not just that you’re doing a job for the paycheck. I’m doing this to help people and help my community and really have an impact.”
Beck said she teared up when she found out her neighbors nominated her.
“You know, there are parts of being on an HOA board that can be a little thankless sometimes, even though I feel like our community does do a really good job of sending us feedback and expressing their appreciation,” Beck said. “To get nominated for something like this, and to know that people really do value it, it just reinforces that we are moving in the right direction and we’re having the desired impact.”
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