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An Interesting Neighbor

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Tiffany Cheatwood is leaving her mark on her hometown one festival at a time.

The Lexington native – “I’ve lived here my whole life” – is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to event planing.

And as a small business owner, she works closely with the Lexington Chamber of Commerce.

Tiffany makes T-shirts and sells mugs and jewelry at the Reckless Buffalo, her small shop located inside Infinity Studio.

Her livelihood, however, is across the river in Purcell where she is office manager for Pruitt Investments, a custom home builder with offices at 2036 S. Green Ave.

“I do a little bit of everything,” she said. “Bookkeeping, marketing and I help touch up the houses.”

It keeps her busy.

“There’s a long list of things I keep adding to my resume,” she said.

The chamber was started by Tonya Adams and city manager Deana Allen and immediately drew Tiffany’s attention.

“I remember how big ‘89ers day used to be,” she said. “It was such a big deal for us, we wanted to bring it back.

“We have all kinds of ideas and keep making it bigger.”

And she doesn’t stop at just one festival.

She was the lead for some of the special events that entertained the crowds at the recent Fall Festival.

And she’s five years into tweaking the annual Tacky Sweater 5K & Fun Run at Purcell Lake.

That event has grown every year since the inaugural race and fun run in 2017.

“Last year it raised over $5,000 for The Fallen Outdoor,” she said.

That organization helps veterans, getting them outdoors where they can fish, hunt or simply enjoy nature.

The 5K and fun run puts participants on foot making their way through Lights from the Heart at Purcell Lake.

The popular annual holiday display will be closed to traffic that night.

Those are the kinds of details at which Tiffany excels.

“I like things to be done right,” she said.

Tiffany’s appearance belies her age – she’s 41 – as does the fact she’s a single mom with a 22-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.

Drew is a senior majoring in marine biology at East Central University in Ada.

Chloe is a junior at Lexington High School and wants nothing more than to cheer on some college team south of the Red River.

“We’ve got to find a way to get her a full-ride scholarship,” Tiffany said. “They do cheer so much bigger in Texas.”

It’s skill she inherited from her mother, who coached Chloe’s Little League cheer team for many years.

“I really enjoyed that,” she recalled.

Tiffany gets her event ideas from many sources. She’s always on the lookout for what other towns are doing to set their festivals apart.

When the Heart of Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce backed away from lamppost decorating contests for the holidays, Tiffany took the idea to Lexington and ran with it.

It’s a hit in Lexington and now Tiffany wants to see it grow.

“I would like to see decorated lampposts from the high school to the bridge, but we’re not there yet,” she said.

The internet and Pinterest are more fodder for Tiffany. It is time-consuming and she averages just four to six hours sleep a night.

“I get my best ideas at the last minute,” she said. “A lot of people try to rein me back. If I had unlimited funds, there’s a lot more I could do.”

Drew and Chloe are involved in their mother’s plans.

“I have to have help. I couldn’t do it without them,” Tiffany said.

Beyond them, there are perhaps 10 people who shoulder most of the responsibilities of making festivals in Lexington a reality.

There’s good community support for the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, but there’s also a need for more.

In such spare time as she has, Tiffany just started a website for the Lexington chamber.

“I like to be behind the scenes,” she said. “Event planning and all the details is right up my alley.”

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