Coast Personality: Duane Burnett
I’ve known Duane Burnett for probably ten years now, and if you don’t, then you just haven’t been getting out much! Duane Burnett is a one-man social media band, and a long-established chronicler of Sunshine Coast life, particularly through community photography.
I have lived on the Sunshine Coast for 25 years now, but Duane’s got me beat on ‘bona fides’. As a 4th generation Coaster, he was baptized at Gibsons United Church and grew up in Gibsons, near what is now Dougall Park. Back then the Coast was a very different place: no stoplights – anywhere – gravel down School Road, and miles and miles of woods and beaches to in which to run wild. He took his full measure of it.
Duane has a heart of gold and is a giver. He’s always ready to provide his talents to businesses, community groups, organizations and anyone wanting to get the word out about what they’re doing.
DuaneBurnett.com has a great reach on and off the Coast. I met the new owners of Due Sechelt Outdoors (the former Marine & Mountain Outfitters on Cowrie) at the Sechelt Thursday Night Market, and found out that it was Duane’s original Sunshine Coast photography video that convinced Peter and Lisa, and their malamute and pekingese companions, Nookie & Lacy, to move here from Ladner this year. That’s influence.
Bigpacific.com Publisher Laurie McConnell, and Duane Burnett, in Roberts Creek
The other part of influence is intention. Like I do with Bigpacific.com, Duane’s invitation to residents, visitors and potential transplants, is to encourage joining the community with the right frame of mind; i.e. not bringing big-city expectations here but instead valuing the Coast exactly for its quirky – and sometimes irritating – charms as a rural, coastal region. We both believe that through our passion for the Sunshine Coast and the people who live here we can have some influence on who comes and how they come here, for the benefit of everyone.
This approach is incredibly important, especially in tight economic times, when the lure of the very necessary other kind of green in the Coast landscape clamors to trump other considerations like responsible development and growth of our communities, a commitment to environmental stewardship, a celebration of spirit and leadership in our businesses, and a willingness to make tough sacrifices to preserve the heart of who we are as a region. I think residents and visitors benefit from an ‘unofficial’ perspective on the community as much as they do from the excellent destination marketing done by Sunshine Coast Tourism and Discover Powell River.
I urge you to check out DuaneBurnett.com today, to follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and enjoy his videos, which continue to see views climb. Oh, and supporting his campaign to bring water fountains for dogs into our communities, in memory of his beautiful Tundra, is an excellent cause too.
