By LINDA CHION KENNEY
With more than 38 years in the title and closing industry, Lynn Langowski of Riverview found herself at a post-retirement crossroads, giving herself three months “to commit to nothing” as she weighed her next-step options.
The respite Langowski expected, unburdened by meetings, calls, deadlines, goal-setting, accounting and reports, did not last long, as her servant’s heart embraced doing more for children and for those traumatized by human exploitation.
Langowski, the former vice president at Foundation Title & Trust in Riverview, is using her time and talents to support Selah Freedom, an anti-human trafficking, tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
“We tackle issues on both ends of the spectrum by helping support local victims and survivors through their recovery phases, preventing future young people from becoming victims while providing more awareness about human trafficking to the community at large,” reads the “About Us” post at www.SelahFreedom.com/.
The work focuses on building awareness, prevention and outreach, while offering residential and consulting services as well.
As a faith-based organization, Selah Freedom serves Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Manatee, Polk and Pasco counties. Through its consulting program, the nonprofit reportedly has served 100 organizations in 20 states and five countries and more than 7,000 survivors, collectively.
As Langowski takes on her Selah Freedom duties as community awareness liaison, she discusses the steps it took to shift her focus from full-time employment to retirement, as evident by a few false starts in that direction.
“Before I retired, I felt a shift in my life, that there was something else out there for me,” Longowski said. “I kept talking about retiring, but I didn’t do anything about it.”
That eventually changed, when on a 2023 birthday cruise, Langowski said she announced publicly, to loved ones and friends, that she was set to retire. “I thought if I made it public, that they were going to hold me accountable to it,” Langowski said. “When I left that cruise, I told my business partner I’d be retiring in 18 months.”
Eventually, that raised a new set of issues, including determining what’s next and realizing that the retirement nest egg she had built might fall short given today’s political and economic climate.
Nevertheless, “I took off the full first three months I had committed to,” Langowski said, and that’s when an old friend, involved in the work of Selah Freedom, took Langowski to breakfast, followed by a tour of a safe house run by the nonprofit.
The experience tapped into Langowski’s passion to tackle community issues and to build its promise, all of which she’s determined to bring to her new line of work, as evident by the feeling she emits in describing the nonprofit’s work.
“Think about it, when Selah Freedom takes in a new woman, they provide for her like you provide for your newborn infant,” Langowski said. “They provide 100 percent of everything the woman needs, from a bar of soap to toothbrush and toothpaste, to shampoos and conditioners, to food, to everything. We take their clothes and phone and lock everything up.
They get new shoes, new underwear, new clothes, and they enter a new way of life.”
So it is for Langowski, who leaves her full-time job in the title industry to add to the thousands of volunteer hours she has amassed as a member and/or board member of community organizations, including the Kiwanis Club of Greater Brandon, for which Langowski is the incoming president.
From her first immersion tour of Selah Freedom safe houses, to her deep study of human trafficking issues, including that the grooming of girls typically starts between the ages of 7 to 14, Langowski said she was sold on how she would spend her first post-retirement engagement.
“I wanted to take a job that would make a difference, and I felt compelled to do something different,” Langowski said. “Did I know I was going to end up in human trafficking? No. Do I know that’s where I’m going to end up permanently? I have no idea. But it matches up with everything I’ve done in this community for all these years, including giving back to children, which is the main Kiwanis focus.”
Linda Chion Kenney
Lynn Langowski, at the Barn Theatre at Winthrop, after the June membership meeting for the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce
Her advice to other careerists looking to cut the strings to full-time and gainful employment is to plan ahead and to bask in the success of hard work, priceless memories and immeasurable wisdom gained. And don’t let others question the value of your work based on your paper trail. It happened to Langowski, she said, when an educated woman she had known for years, upon learning that Langowski aimed to retire, said she would love for Langowski to work for her, but not after she learned Langowski had never attended college.
“That was eye-opening to me, that her opinion of me changed because I did not have a sheet of paper that said I had a formal education,” Langowski said. “But college or not, you can be successful and viable as a leader. And when you’re dealing with life and death issues, your heart will be taxed as much as your brain. It comes down to building relationships with people and using those relationships to help make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.”