Duncan Macintyre
Duncan Macintyre is a Canadian-British dual national who lived and studied in France for a couple of years in between tours of duty in Japan, the second of which has now lasted 23 years! This month’s Stellar Volunteer, runs the corporate communications firm SAI Inc., which specializes in scriptwriting, copywriting and multilingual video and web production. Duncan says he “…is lucky to enjoy my work thoroughly and I end up spending most of my spare time thinking about how to have even more fun in my work. My long-suffering but far-from-submissive wife, Rie, has gotten used to talking to me across the open lid of a MacBook Air.” Thankfully, Duncan saves some time for volunteer work with the Tyler Foundation. Kim Forsythe believes “Duncan has brought a new level of professionalism to our events - not only through his video productions - but to our event team as a whole with his insight and experience with project management. I won't even begin to let you imagine the number of volunteer hours that go into crafting, filming and editing the projects he has done for us.”
Duncan first learned of Tyler Foundation activities through friend Rachel Walzer and was interested enough in the theatrical show she was directing for the Mystery a la carte fundraising event in 2008 to offer to help produce the audio and visuals aspects of the show and make a post-event video to help promote the Foundation. “The surge of volunteer support for the event, including the tireless efforts of everyone contributing to the show was enormously inspiring and participation meant reconnecting with lots of old friends including Kim and Mark, and sharing a good time with some very creative people while doing good things.” Duncan “…has extraordinary project management skills which bring discipline to a very challenging (and important) project: capturing our events on video so we can show our sponsors and other supporters some of our activities," shared Mark Ferris.
When the planning for the 2009 Vegas Extravaganza event began, Duncan got even more interested because of a long-term interest in animal assisted therapy. After graduation from university he had taken a job as rehabilitation assistant in an extended care hospital in Vancouver, and his dog and best friend Bella went to work with him. Bella was untrained but a huge hit with the elderly residents because of her gentle, friendly nature. Unfortunately, after some six months, Bella began to show very clear signs of stress and had to retire.
When he learned of the plans for the Shine On! Animal Assisted Therapy program, Duncan was fascinated and enthusiastic. At Hawaii Canines for Independence, puppies are chosen to undergo a rigorous, multi-year, multi-stage training program to ready them for all kinds of work, including the kind of work Bella was trying to do—visiting patients in hospital to raise their spirits and encourage them to enjoy life. “The Tyler Foundation plan to bring a trained dog to Japan to "work" in a hospital here was something I was extremely enthusiastic about reporting, so I volunteered to make a video once again, and worked doggedly to gather audiovisual material from Hawaii through the Foundation.”
The Vegas Extravaganza was another huge success thanks to an even bigger wave of support from the growing army of volunteers, and Duncan directed and produced a video shot and edited by long-term Foundation helper Ryan Skelton and fellow dog-lover Jeff Cooke which can now be seen on the Tyler Foundation website. Duncan told us: “I look forward to continuing to help support the Tyler Foundation and particularly the Shine On! Animal Assisted Therapy program as Bailey, the therapy dog from Hawaii, settles into his job as a pioneer ‘professional’ therapy dog in Japan.”
“I enjoy contributing to the Tyler Foundation cause by doing work that I enjoy, in particular by exploring video production as a way of extracting and amplifying the story of an organization. The moments I enjoy most are when I get to sit down and interview Kim and Mark and various volunteers working on the events and listen to them tell their stories, and then extract and weave the best bits into a video. The opportunity to create something that hopefully helps more and more people appreciate what the Foundation is doing, and how rewarding it can be to participate, is what makes it all a pleasure for me.” The Tyler Foundation is extremely grateful that Duncan is helping to shine the spotlight on our programs and activities. We are happy to shine our Stellar Spotlight on him! Kim noted “People just don’t give the many hours and much love that Duncan has because they know you – they do it because they support what you’re doing. Thank you Duncan!”