Event Coordinating Makes Sienna Fitzpatrick’s Dreams Come True

Photo Credit: Brooke Parker Photography

By Meg Hale Brunton

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, Ingles Markets Event Coordinator Sienna Fitzpatrick has always been a lover of concerts. Throughout high school and college, she interned at The Orange Peel and Rabbit Rabbit event centers. She worked her way through college waiting tables, and earned her degree in Music Business at Montreat College in Black Mountain. After one of her professors led the class on a field trip to Nashville, Tennessee, Fitzpatrick made a plan to move there once she graduated to become a band manager and audio engineer. As was true for many people, the COVID-19 pandemic put her plans on hold indefinitely.

In December 2022, Fitzpatrick landed a job as an event setup person for iHeart Media. In that role, she began learning the ins and outs of coordinating musical events, working with media partners, and developing ongoing marketing relationships. While she enjoyed the job, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to apply for an Ingles Markets event coordinator position she saw. When she got the job, she felt reluctant to leave the people she had worked with and come to feel a deep connection with. After starting, Fitzpatrick was delighted to find that they would still be present in her professional life. “I’m so happy to still be working with them because it was so hard to leave that job,” she says of the iHeart Media team. “But now I get to work with them in a different way, which is even cooler.”

Since starting at Ingles in July 2023, Fitzpatrick has been working with Ruby Downes, another event coordinator, whom she says is the perfect mentor for her. “She has been my saving grace. She is able to nurture and cater to all of the connections that we have to make,” Fitzpatrick says of Downes. “Anything can go awry at any second, and it’s been really great to see how she handles that, and it’s been really valuable for me to take that into my professional life, but also my personal life.” 

Together, Fitzpatrick and Downes work closely with the advertising department at Ingles, meet with customers, monitor the budget, and plan the multitude of events that Ingles sponsors. These events cover everything from the Cherry Blossom Festival in Conyers, Georgia to the NCAA Southern Conference. “We are one of the biggest sponsors in this area. I didn’t really stop to think about how invested in the community Ingles was until I started working for Ingles. Now, it blows my mind,” says Fitzpatrick, adding that her department is also responsible for putting together Ingles’ cooking programs, their quarterly food magazine, and coordinating the chefs and photographers who put together their Ingles’ weekly ad. In addition to building up her work ethic, Fitzpatrick also credits the job and the staff with giving her the confidence to be successful. “This job has definitely made me grow up in ways that I needed to, which I realize as well. Everyone works so well as a team. It’s nice to have that kind of support system at all times.”

Other than the fantastic relationships she has formed with the Ingles employees and partners, Fitzpatrick says that the best aspect of her job is the stories she hears from Ingles’ customers. “The most rewarding part of my job is hearing how we have helped people in the community with what we do,” she says. Fitzpatrick goes on to celebrate how amazing it is that Ingles donate over 3,000 meals per day to the public through charities, like Manna Food Bank and Eblen Charities. “Overall, I just love interacting and talking with people.”

For all other young women who are beginning their careers, Fitzpatrick is a big advocate of drive and self-confidence. “Follow what you want to do. Go after what you want. Really listen to yourself and believe in yourself, because if I hadn’t believed in myself I would have never applied for this job and I wouldn’t know what I could do,” she advises. Fitzpatrick professes to occasionally feel intimidated about her future, since she is still very young and has come so far professionally- but she knows she can handle it. “It’s crazy to think that this is just the start for me. I’m very, very blessed to have had this opportunity and I definitely want to cradle it and take care of it.”

While not the career she originally saw herself getting into, Fitzpatrick loves her role at Ingles. She adores the people she works with, and that her job keeps her connected to the music scene. For instance, this summer, Ingles is sponsoring a concert series in Atlanta that will feature two of Fitzpatrick’s favorite artists: Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan. She is also a diehard football fan and takes delight in getting to maintain Ingles’ partnerships with the football seasons at Appalachian State University, Western University, and Clemson University. Though an unexpected blessing, Ingles has made Fitzpatrick’s professional dreams a reality. “I never thought I would end up with a grocery store, just because I never knew that background of what Ingles was involved in,” Fitzpatrick admits. “Really anything I wanted to do, Ingles was a part of. It is everything I could have wanted.”