Adele Lyons is Knight's program director for the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

As a life long resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I feel I know a lot about what makes the Coast tick. I think this was part of the reason I was hired by Knight Foundation to serve as the Program Director for the area. I was not at all surprised to read the results of the Gallup survey that found residents are emotionally attached to the Coast. In fact, the Mississippi Gulf Coast ranks high amongst the other 25 Knight Foundation communities in their loyalty and passion to the community.

I think back to how many times I have heard someone say, "I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could." I've heard this over and over again from military retirees, corporate transplants, spouses of locals who were convinced to make the Coast their family’s home.

The Soul of the Community survey found there are three main factors that attach people to the community – social offerings (fun places to gather), openness (how welcoming a place is) and aesthetics (an area’s physical beauty). Just think about how many festivals, great restaurants and fun things there are to do on the Coast as well as places to socialize. These social offerings make living here fun, but they're also why tourists visit our towns. Openness is what the Coast was built on as a melting pot of so many nationalities, religions and cultures. There is a steady flow of new personnel to our military bases from all of the US and the world keeps this melting pot churning. The third factor is the one that is near and dear to my heart - aesthetics. The Coast has unbelievable physical beauty in our natural resources ranging from the Gulf to the bayous and rivers and many trees.

Of course, we are all more appreciative of the beauty of our community once we saw so much of it damaged or destroyed following Katrina.

You can learn more about Knight Foundation and Gallup’s Soul of the Community survey by exploring this site.

I would like to hear from you what drives your loyalty and passion for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Please comment on this blog post and share your thoughts.