Each year the Friday Harbor Film Festival awards a “Local Hero.” This Local Hero Award is presented to a current or former resident of the San Juan Islands who has made outstanding contributions to our quality of life, impacting people, animals, the arts, health, or the environment This year, San Juan Island’s Cynthia Burke will be presented.

“I was surprised and grateful for the acknowledgment. This is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in my career,” Burke said, adding that it has been a team effort. “Basically, I just come up with an idea, and it’s islanders that make it happen.”

Burke began visiting the island in the ’70s and later moved to Friday Harbor in 1997 with her husband, Christopher and two daughters. Cynthia opened a commercial kitchen & created a catering service, a yoga studio, a food truck out at Lime Kiln State Park, and finally in 2015 – Cynthia’s Bistro. For 25 years, throughout the summer, she can be found at the Farmers Market each Saturday.

In 2017 Burke began the “Kitchen Sink Dinners.” a free dinner program that runs from October through March for the community— no questions asked. The title stems from the expression “Everything but the Kitchen Sink.” Burke and her crew worked with local farmers as well as the grocery stores who provided surplus or otherwise unsellable produce that was still edible, and cooked up an incredible warm meal for those who needed or wanted it, from her restaurant “Cynthia’s Bistro.”

“It was an interesting social experiment of sorts with volunteers showing up, some with freshly baked bread or dessert to share, and those who received the food were so very grateful,” Burke told the Film Festival. Since the program began, she has served over 2,000 free meals.

In 2024, Burke sold the restaurant and has been renting The SJI Grange commercial kitchen. She will continue to offer Kitchen Sink Dinners through the Grange.

“A lifetime member of the SJI Grange, I feel the Grange is a perfect space to continue the community program,” Burke said.

Kitchen Sink Dinners was only one of the community projects she started.

In 2019 Cynthia reached out to community members to clean out their closets and bring unneeded coats to hang on the rack in front of the bistro. People in need of a coat were welcome to take one free. Over 1,000 coats have been handed out.

“I can’t take full credit for this. A friend of mine sent me a picture of a place in Amsterdam that had lined up coats on little picket fences,” Burke told the Journal. “Then I read the article and thought -what a great idea.” She put out a notice on Facebook letting the community know if they were cleaning out their closet and had coats they wanted to give to those in need, to drop them by. For those needing a jacket, she added, come on by.

Islanders were happy to clean out their closets and clear out coats they weren’t wearing while simultaneously helping someone, according to Burke. “I created a space for people to give back to their community – I’m just the intermediary. I think people are inherently good, they don’t always know how to share it or show it.” Hundreds of coats have come in over the years; from beautiful North Face, Patagonia, Neiman Marcus, thick wool coats to rain jackets of all sizes. Each has found second lives with someone who would otherwise struggle to stay warm. Some of the coats pockets were filled with hand warmers and gift certificates. Burke hung them all along the picket fence next door on the corner by her restaurant. After a while, the coats were hung 24 hours under a protective umbrella and the coats regularly came and went over a period of a few months.

The community showed their gratitude in return. The hedges in front of the bistro were trimmed on multiple occasions, pumpkins on her porch were suddenly transformed into Jack-O-Lanterns and the cement walkway was once covered with chalk hearts.

As Burke works with the Grange as a new location for Kitchen Sink Dinners, Burke also hopes to also put up a coat rack to continue the program.

She has truly enjoyed being a part of both projects, explaining “Part of it is the people [in need] but also the people who come out of the woodwork and say I want to help.”

“I want to thank the community for supporting my crazy ideas,” Burke said, adding to stay tuned as the ideas keep coming!!