On Dec. 2, the Ignite the North event made a stop in Burns Lake at the Vineyard Church. If you have never heard of this event (and I hadn’t either until last week), the main goal of it is to create a safe space for community members to discuss ideas that could positively impact our town.
That was it. No decisions were made and no funding was provided for any projects. It was simply a time to discuss and reflect about what we could be doing differently.
This doesn’t sound life changing, does it? But it was actually brilliant!
The people who showed up took the time to reflect on what our community really needs - how to make sure we continue to grow, how to make sure we are more pro-active and how to transform this community into the best possible place to live in Northern B.C.
This may sound like something that cannot be achieved during a meeting, but once the energy started flowing in the room and ideas started pouring out, we all learned how exciting it was to have that kind of discussion.
We as humans are conditioned to keep complaining, to only see what is not working and to quickly point fingers. It’s easy to do that. We rarely take the time to actually stop and think about what could be done to change things, or explore what ideas we might have. We rarely think positively and pro-actively as a group because it’s difficult to do so. We certainly didn’t find all the solutions for our town during that meeting, but we all learned something greater - that we can have a positive influence in our community simply by changing the way we think. That simple shift could have a lasting effect in our community and in our lives.
Although the event is travelling through 11 communities in Northern B.C., the speakers were prepared to talk about this town specifically. They mentioned how the Burns Lake Mountain Biking Association trails were just a dream about 10 years ago, and now Burns Lake is recognized internationally for its world-class mountain biking trails. They also mentioned how this community dealt with pain and loss after the mill explosion in 2012. Shortly after the incident, our leaders held meetings in order to discuss how to rebuild the confidence of this community. This town has proven to have plenty of resilient and creative people. And that is exactly why a space for discussion was such a great idea.
Some of the ideas people discussed during the meeting included how to attract youth into our community, and the need to have venues and events that would sustain a healthy lifestyle for the youngsters. Also discussed was the need to support the arts in our community by building an arts college. Another idea was to create an aggressive marketing plan for our town - one that would put Burns Lake on the map, so that people in bigger centres would know about the lifestyle and the positive attributes of our town. This exposure would help attract new residents to our area.
Did any solutions come out of this event? Is Burns Lake actually going to build an arts college or make an aggressive marketing plan? Maybe not. And maybe that wasn’t the intent of this event. I am sure the organizers weren’t expecting us to come up with life-changing projects in a couple of hours. What this event has shown us is that this kind of synergy, this positive interaction between residents and community leaders should be encouraged. When we shift our thinking to “how can we make this place better today,” that’s when ideas really start to flow.
There is no reason why you - the person reading this column - can’t have great ideas. So just ask yourself, what could make this community the best place to live?