Douglas Park Media, Old Books, New Photos

In 2012 I started Douglas Park Media to account for media work I had been receiving over the transom--articles and photography for online hockey publications and such--but also to scratch an itch to document, publicize, promote, and report.

Over the years this evolved as various "projects" familiar to some in the Brunswick Area emerged: Faces of Brunswick, my website and blog on community affairs back when I was a town councilor, and countless photo albums for community events. I have been documenting the happenings around this town for many years and making people happy along the way. My work has supported fundraisers, local projects, school events, social causes, political events and local campaigns, and youth sports, youth sports, youth sports.

Sports photography began to bear fruit. For three years (2016-19), my work--prose and photos--was seen regularly on Maine MileSplit (me.milesplit.com), Maine's best source for reporting on Cross Country and Track & Field. Often enough my work got pinched and used elsewhere.

The joy I take in doing this work together with the reception it receives made it clear that I can do more.

I had been promoting things and causes for years—mainly things and causes that I had a separate interest in—but without any organizational structure and without promoting my skills as a service. Projects landed in my lap which generated income but just as often the work was from a sense of good will, to lend a hand. There is still plenty of that, but now there is structure to the value.

In 2019 I began to make an effort to sell the rare books that have been in my household for years, a by-product of the fact that both my wife and I are descendants of book collectors. We purchased our first home in Bath, furnished and filled with books, from her grandparents. Our second home, also furnished and filled with books, had been my childhood home. You can read more about the book business here.
 

• Benet Pols