Austin Burr was 5 years old when his mother died. The next year, 1997, his father, Ed Burr, launched the Monique Burr Foundation. Austin Burr joined the board last fall. In that capacity, he will attend the annual “A Night at Roy’s” benefit May 2 at Roy’s Restaurant in Jacksonville Beach.
The Monique Burr Foundation was started a year after the passing of my mother in a car accident when I was young. My dad started it in her memory. The goal always has been to provide awareness and prevention through education to reach as many kids as we can every year to bring down child abuse and sexual abuse rates, bring awareness and to help children find a safe adult that can help protect them and reduce these unfortunately tragic incidents that happen way too often.
I remember the day that my dad came home and told me what happened. I remember bits and pieces with my mother. I have one faint memory of lying on the couch with her at our house in Jacksonville Beach. I was only 5 years old when she passed, but everybody tells me about the great things she did. That’s special. It’s really good to understand.
The Monique Burr Foundation is something that everyone can get behind. It affects the lives of children who are going to one day be running this world. Every situation that we’re able to stop or prevent can make a difference. Every child that we get to teach can make a difference.
We’re going to get young professionals involved and meet once a quarter. We will start the next group of people who are going to lead this foundation in the future. Social media can be used as a tool or a weapon, but we can use it as a tool to spread our message.
I went to Florida State University. I got my undergraduate degree in accounting and finance and went back for my master’s in accounting. I spent about three years at KPMG here in Jacksonville in the audit practice. I learned a lot about the accounting world and specifically real estate clients. I am just now starting with real estate development at GreenPointe Communities LLC. (His father started GreenPointe Holdings LLC.)
The goal is to create communities that are sustainable. Real estate development has always interested me because you take a piece of land and you turn it into somewhere where thousands of people live and thrive and enjoy their lives. I think it’s a cool transformation.
Fishing was always my summer job throughout high school and college. In first grade, there was an amount of pages we had to read for summer reading. My dad said, “If you read X amount more, I’ll take you on a fishing trip.” He had grown up offshore sport fishing. I met that goal. It became our tradition. I fell in love with it on the first trip.