Pictured Above: Stan and Carren Arthur originally thought of the Emergency Relief Fund when they were traveling to North Carolina on vacation.
Catherine Hicks | The Crow’s Nest
By Catherine Hicks
When Stan Arthur first discovered the Groups feature on Facebook in 2009, he was surprised to see there were no quality groups for the community he’d known and loved his entire life: St. Petersburg.
Arthur’s father retired from the Navy when Arthur was seven and his family moved to St. Petersburg, his mother’s hometown. By the time he reached the age of 20, Arthur was ready to explore new places, and began traveling across the country for work for the next 13 years.
Despite his travels, nothing compared to St. Petersburg.
“In all that time, I never experienced a place I liked more than St. Petersburg. I always felt like I would come back here to stay,” Arthur said.
His love for St. Petersburg inspired him to return once he left behind his traveling lifestyle. Arthur is the Manager of Video Production at Stetson University, where he’s worked for 22 years.
Just five years after Facebook was founded in 2004, Arthur followed in the footsteps of Facebook’s original mission statement “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together,” when he started the I Love St. Pete Facebook group.
By 2015, the group had 5,000 members, at which point membership rapidly began to climb.
“Since 2015, we’ve added another 58,000 people,” Arthur said. “That’s nuts when you think about it. It’s just crazy.”
There are now nearly 64,000 members of the I Love St. Pete Facebook group, with roughly 50,000 active on a monthly basis according to Facebook analytics for the group. Active members mean people who post and interact with others posts throughout the month.
The work they’re doing is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
During the height of COVID-19, the group came together to help those in need.
Lisa Vasquez, a five-year member of the group and longtime friend of Arthur, reached out to Arthur to see if he knew of any dealership’s that would be willing to accept payments until she’d gotten a down payment together.
When he couldn’t find anywhere to help her, Stan set up a Facebook fundraiser in the I Love St. Pete group for Lisa to get a car.
“In under 50 hours, (following) Stan’s first donation of $100, total strangers donated $3,550.00 to my car,” Vasquez said.
The enthusiasm of the response and the willingness of the community to help a person in need inspired Arthur.
Two months ago, Arthur started the Emergency Relief Fund; a fund in which group members can donate with the intention of helping a community member in need.
“In that two months we’ve collected close to $15,000.00 from people who have just said yep, here you go, use it for someone who needs it,” Arthur said.
The funds have gone to people in need across the community: a woman in an abusive relationship who needed a couple nights at a motel before finding a roommate; paying the electric bill for a single mom who was struggling to make ends meet; and providing a disabled gentleman with rent money to stay at his hotel and replacement brakes on his vehicle.
“The fund that Stan (put) into effect has been a lifesaver for many,” said Jennifer Pickens, a group member since 2019 who gave free back-to-school haircuts to group members. “(Most people) don’t know that for two months, Stan paid my phone bill because I couldn’t afford to.”
Carren Arthur, Stan’s wife, is inspired by the generosity of the community.
“People generally want to help somebody in any way they can, and a lot of times it doesn’t even cost them anything,” Carren Arthur said. “It’s something they already have.
“I know someone posted about ‘Don’t give your money to goodwill because 20 cents on the dollar goes to someone who actually needs it.’ And we started thinking — you know, 100 percent of what you put in will go to someone in need. We don’t take anything from it, we use our own gas. I feel like this is why people want to do it, because they know it’s going to someone local who is really in need.”
Recently, Stan and Carren Arthur celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at The Pesky Pelican Brew Pub, hosting a fundraiser for the Emergency Relief Fund at their celebration. The celebration was held outdoors in order to follow COVID-19 guidelines.
Catherine Hicks | The Crow’s Nest
The owner of the Pesky Pelican, Dan Pemberton, was the first group member to try out Arthur’s key tag program to help local businesses when it was started one year ago.
Catherine Hicks | The Crow’s Nest
Arthur created key tags that businesses could hand out to group members when they came into their business – a plain white key tag with the words “I Love St. Pete” on one side. The key tag provides group members with 10 percent off their service or purchase at a participating business. In order to get a key tag, a group member has to go to a key tag business.
In addition, the business owners are allowed to post to advertise three times daily in a group with nearly 64,000 members.
There are other advertising opportunities available to key tag businesses as well, such as purchasing a batch of key tags to have their logo printed on the opposite side or the cover of the group is available on a monthly basis.
“(Since joining) we’ve gained a lot of customers –- loyal customers,” Pemberton said, “We’ve also gotten a lot of recognition from the group itself… we’re a destination restaurant. If you don’t know we’re here, you’re not gonna find us.”
Vasquez became a facilitator and sales representative for the key tag program after receiving help from the group.
“So far I’ve helped five businesses,” Vasquez said, “One gentleman who owns the Puerto Rican Restaurant, Wepaa, said in three days from the key tag program, his business tripled at lunch.”
The combination of the key tag program and the emergency relief fund has created a community of paying-it-forward and boosting others up.
“This community is really what the page is all about,” Vasquez said.
Carren and Stan Arthur invest their time, energy, and money into facilitating and managing the group.
“You know, you get a better feeling from things like this, this is the best thing we’ve ever done in our lives… This is the most inspiring thing we’ve ever done, not because of us, but because of the people responding,” Carren Arthur said. “It’s not about us, we put something out there just because someone has asked and the people that step up every day amaze me.”
