Antonette Slobodian has lived in Macomb County for over 40 years. She and her husband, Nick, have been married for 15 years and decided to stay in Macomb County to raise their family.
“Sterling Heights is where I moved from Oakland County when I was only 11 years old,” says Slobodian. “Warren was where we bought our first home. And Macomb Township is where we live now and have been for 10 years!”
She is a freelance content creator and social media manager who loves to get out and about in the community — especially in Macomb County. She loves creating reels on Instagram and sharing topics such as family, fashion, fitness, being Filipina and philanthropy. Follow along with her on her Instagram @qualityofwifeandboys.
“I love to create and meet new people in the creative space,” says Slobodian. “I feel that creators are so important to this world because they are the dreamers, innovators and love change!”
Her top spots to visit in Macomb County
“Our family loves Macomb County because it has it all,” says Slobodian. “We are able to travel to the farms and spend the day at all sorts of parks.”
She always finds fun stuff to do with her family around Macomb County, whether attending a fun event or just exploring a new city.
“In the summer, we like to go to the beach in New Baltimore,” she says. “They also have a great small downtown area with great restaurants and shops.”
Another downtown area she has been frequenting a lot lately is downtown Mount Clemens.
“It’s becoming a beautiful gem of a city with cute shops and a really great little downtown city vibe,” says Slobodian.
Macomb County also offers so many great recreational programs and youth sports to get involved in.
“My youngest was involved in basketball at the Macomb Township Recreation Center and we love the aquatics center there,” she says.
Since the kids are getting out of school soon, she explains that she will be heading to the libraries more.
“We frequent libraries and love the new North Clinton Macomb Library,” says Slobodian. “All of the wood furniture in the facility was repurposed by all the trees that were torn down. It is great for the city and the county to see how important it is to develop new buildings for the community and preserve the trees somehow.”
How she gives back to the community
“I worked for a children’s charity not too long ago and I loved sharing their mission through social media,” she says. “So now I love to volunteer or attend charity events myself and share their missions that they are so passionate about through my platform.”
She also attends networking events geared toward business and creativity to gain more knowledge to help her business thrive.
“The Sister Sprout and Velocity in Sterling Heights hosted a creative approach for building a business plan from the ground up,” says Slobodian. “There were 15 of us ladies, mixed with fully developed entrepreneurs as well as aspiring entrepreneurs just getting started.”
She explains that the six-week program consisted of special guest speakers and every week they gained valuable knowledge as a step-by-step process to getting where you want your business to be.
“Dusty, the founder of Sister Sprout, was very knowledgeable as well as colorful,” she says. She explains the importance of this because it always made the program fun.
Her heritage is very important to her and she is also part of a Filipino community group called US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) where she is the secretary for the group.
“I recently got more involved because of my children,” says Slobodian. “They wanted to know the history of where their grandparents were from and share the culture with friends and others around them.”
This particular group hosts many events throughout the year and encourages participants to dive deeper into their culture and communities.
“The main initiative of USP4GG is to further our culture through awareness and events that are open for anyone who may be interested in diving deep into what our Filipino culture is,” she says.
Anyone can join USP4GG. Head to their website to find out about upcoming events, volunteer and support the group.
For more information on living and learning in Macomb County, visit Make Macomb Your Home. Find more articles like this at Metro Parent’s A Family Guide to Macomb County.