"Still Standing" to film in Vanastra, Ontario

In December 2013, members of Wayne Caldwell’s and Jennifer Ball’s Community Engagement class became involved with a community revitalization strategy in Vanastra, Ontario. After a successful Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) initiative, the task of the students was to explore more closely what some of these revitalization strategies might look like for the Village. The students produced a report called “Putting Vanastra on the Map” and it was well received by the community. Recently, we have heard about some more exciting news coming out of Vanastra. Jan Hawley, the Economic Development Officer at the Municipality of Huron East, has been working with the producers of Still Standing, a television show featured on CBC and hosted by Jonny Harris. Jan was happy to let us know that Still Standing is coming to Vanastra to film an episode! The show features rural communities from across Canada, and the Village of Vanastra will be host to 5 days of filming. Jan has let us know that part of what sparked the interest of the Still Standing producers was the “Putting Vanastra on the Map” document created by SEDRD students! The show will be open to everyone and anyone who is interested. While SEDRD is not involved in the taping of the episode directly, we are happy to see that the momentum within the Village hasn’t stopped!