Dan Mullin and Duane Sulk have made a video of Lehigh Acres.

Over the past few years, Lehigh has had to take its share of negative publicity, especially after the building boom went bust. Lehigh and much of Lee County were among the top areas in the country with a huge number of foreclosed homes.

Even prior to a visit to Lee County by President Barack Obama in February of 2009, there had been negative videos made showing the worse of the community, which were the number of foreclosed homes.

But today, a Fort Myers firm has put a video up on Youtube showing Lehigh in a much different light, one that its producers say is true and portrays the community in a positive light.

The 12-minute video shows the town and includes some of the history and attractions in the community and just outside Lehigh. As of this week, it has been viewed more than 130 times. Hopes are that thousands of people will eventually find it by googling the town’s name.

The Chang Group Inc. of Fort Myers is a real estate firm that deals in real estate in Lee County. The firm’s multi-media director, Duane Sulk, who co-produced, wrote and hosted the video said it had a special cause.

Prospective retirees and others who want to move to Florida often call the firm and other businesses in Lehigh to ask what are the conditions of the town today despite all the bad publicity years back.

The firm has found that instead of sending a letter, a video could be produced and put on Youtube for distribution across the nation and the world.

Sulk said that many who buy homes or home sites are always asking “what is there to do in Lehigh?”

“They want to know what the attractions are and does it have any parks. They want to know if they can go boating and they ask ‘Where is Lehigh? How did the town get started.'”

The video can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L-qnpqaZLc. Sulk said in the past when people had questions they answered them usually in a form letter and emailed it to prospective out-of-town buyers.

But during a corporate marketing meeting, the idea came up to make and send them a video response.

They did that one better, by putting it up on the Internet.

Sulk said it was difficult to decide what to include in the video. He said they had originally planned for a 10-minute video but soon learned that was going to be impossible because there was so much more to tell.

Sulk said they zeroed in on area parks such as the Veterans Park complex, the Jim Fleming Eco Park, the Charles Matheny Park, and the Barbara Farrell Park, all small venues with picnic tables and great views.

Videographer Dan Mullin spent about three days of videoing last month all over Lehigh, including some 30 sites. With all the material they had gathered, it took a week to do the editing.

Sulk said a script was written before the location shoots but words he said, became a living, breathing thing.

“Harns Marsh was one such attraction that they couldn’t ignore. Some have called it the biggest kept secret in Lehigh. Located on the north side of Lehigh, it encompasses hundreds of acres of a lake and lowland areas and has become a favorite site for bird watching clubs where people come with binoculars from other areas of South Florida. It’s also a favorite place to park and walk around the lake. If you walk completely around, you’re talking about four miles and the driveway around the lake is closed to vehicular traffic.

Sulk said Harns Mark was “so peaceful, so beautiful, especially the morning” they shot the video.

“While we were going to give it 20 seconds, it ended up running closer to a minute after it had been edited,” Sulk said.

Sulk said there are also a few people who were interviewed for the video. They included Gabe Cox, a youngster who was skateboarding in Veterans Park, Sudie Wright who was fishing at the Matheny Park and Don Olney who had just finished playing a round of golf at the Majestic Golf Club.

Sulk said Inke Baker from the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce was a great help with information.

In contrast to a few other videos, and particularly a negative article written by Raymond Schillinger for the Huffington Post, this new video gives viewers a positive look at the community.

Schillinger wrote at the end of his article: “The faces and voices that make up my film, Dreams for Sale, are of the citizens of Lehigh and its neighboring communities who (sic) have braved the eye of the storm and lived to tell about it. They will be responsible for shaping Lehigh Acres in its next half-century, and their commitment to that future is the only hope for bringing Lehigh back from the brink of catastrophe.