{"id":24629,"date":"2019-09-05T19:23:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24629"},"modified":"2019-09-12T17:21:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T21:21:20","slug":"niagara-college-hopes-to-be-in-armoury-by-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/niagara-college-hopes-to-be-in-armoury-by-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Niagara College hopes to be in Armoury by October"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were hoping to be settled into the historic Aurora\nArmoury by the start of the 2019-2020 school year, but Niagara College\u2019s\nCanadian Food & Wine Institute is now hoping to have things up and running\nnext month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadian Food & Wine Institute nevertheless aims\nto unveil their full roster of classes, courses and other associated programs\nthat will take place inside the historic building on their website next week.\nMeanwhile, work continues within the former home of the Queen\u2019s York Rangers,\naccording to Craig Youdale, Dean of the Canadian Food & Wine Institute\n(CFWI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, we are in the final stages of installing\nequipment and some of the finishing touches, including the construction of the\npatio, but we\u2019re in the home stretch,\u201d says Mr. Youdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fully renovated Armoury was originally supposed to be\ncomplete in June, but has been subject to a sliding scale in the intervening\nmonths. At the last Council meeting in July, renovations were anticipated to be\ncomplete by mid-August with the CFWI moving in at the end of that month. But,\nconstruction continues and October is now being eyed, says Mr. Youdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the CFWI has already filled two new\npermanent positions \u2013 an Operations & Chef Manager and an Event\nAdministrator \u2013 who have been on the job for about three weeks, put up in space\n\u201cthanks to the Town of Aurora until the building is complete,\u201d says Mr.\nYoudale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are already starting to plan the building\noperations and to get things rolling as soon as we get in there,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\ndon\u2019t want to plan anything and not have everything ready, but we do have some\nplans to have things going almost right away, so definitely at some point in\nOctober, right through to the fall and winter. We will have classes and events\nplanned in the space pretty much every weekend and during the week as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the upcoming plans, he says, include Christmas-\nand Holiday-themed classes in the lead up to the winter on how to bake\neverything from breads to Christmas cookies, and courses on how to plan the\nperfect Christmas dinner. As an added attraction, programs will be offered\nwhich will allow patrons to order a full Christmas dinner, prepared by CFWI\nstaff, to take home to enjoy during the festive season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the beverage side of the Canadian Food & Wine\nInstitute Programming, upcoming classes will include courses on pairing food\nand wine, tasting classes for wine, beer and cider, and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNiagara College is very excited,\u201d says Mr. Youdale on\nbecoming the first permanent post-secondary presence in Aurora. \u201cThis is new\nground for us, too. It is a new opportunity, it is a new style of bringing\neducation to a Region and a Town. This is something that is really different\nand I know our staff is really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Aurora struck a lease agreement with Niagara\nCollege in the last term of Council, representatives from the CFWI have been a\nsteady presence in community events, including the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market and\nthe now-annual Christmas Markets. These and other events have allowed Niagara\nCollege to give the public a flavour of what\u2019s to come, as well as offered\neducators to get an idea of what the community would like to see from the institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have seen some fantastic input and engagement from\nthe Town and the surrounding region,\u201d says Mr. Youdale. \u201cBusinesses, private\nindividuals, groups and organizations have all been in contact with us\nconstantly since the project was announced about being able to partner with us,\nconnect with us, how to use the space, and what opportunities they have when\nthe space is opened. It has been really positive and we have been able to have\ngreat relationships with [the business community], with the Chamber of\nCommerce, the Historical Society, and different community outreach groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been a variety of groups that are looking to\nconnect with us and not only use that space, but partner on events and other\nactivities that happen in the Town. We want to not just be a singular operation\nin the Town, but we want to be able to be a part of what is happening in the\nTown as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest challenge, he adds, is \u201cso many people are\nexcited about the space\u201d that it is a challenge to accommodate everyone \u2013 but\nthey\u2019re trying. \u201cThe space is only so big and there are only so many square\nfeet, so hopefully we will be able to have enough variety so that everyone gets\na chance to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking to what has already been completed, Mr. Youdale\nsays he thinks people will be taken with the renovations as soon as they walk\nthrough the Armoury\u2019s doors. The integration of the building\u2019s history, such as\nthe former drill shed\u2019s original beamed ceilings, with modern amenities, like\nthe floor to ceiling roll-up glass doors that will facilitate a seamless\nconnection between the Armoury building and Town Park will be a unique and\ninteractive landmark in Aurora, he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main event space is the centre point of the building\nand that is going to be a really impressive space for people,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\nwill walk into the building and see right up to the 40 foot beamed roof of the\noriginal barn with all the original timbers and the original ceilings still in\nplace, but integrated into that is a full culinary theatre with video display\nand high tech cameras with cooking equipment almost like your own tv show right\nin the middle of the event space. Another [exciting space] is the teaching\nkitchen, which is on one side of the building that faces the entire park. With\nthe glass floor to ceiling, not only will you be able to take in and see the\nentire park when you\u2019re working right in the kitchen and learning, but people\nin the park will be able to look inside and see classes taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are as excited to get started as the community is to\nget in there and use the space. I think that the community will find that there\nis going to be something for everyone and that is what our goal was from the\nbeginning, from a simple class on how to bake breads, to a VIP dinner or wedding\nor social event. There will be something for everyone in the space, an\nopportunity to use the space, and that was a goal to the design \u2013 to bring a\nwide variety of opportunity.\u201d\n\n\n\nFor more information on Niagara College\u2019s\nCanadian Food & Wine Institute, as well as the full roster of classes and\ncourses when it goes live the week of September 9\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classes set to go online next week, says Canadian Food & Wine Institute Dean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-05-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6pf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 12:36:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}