(Seguin) — Seguin apparently wants HGTV to come in and takeover “our town.” In their quest to capture the attention of Ben and Erin Napier of the hit series Home Town, residents this weekend will rallying in front of cameras in hopes of having the couple choose Seguin for its upcoming series “Home Town Takeover.”
A Central Park gathering for all Seguin residents has been scheduled for this Saturday afternoon in downtown Seguin. The purpose behind the gathering is to help capture on video exactly why Seguin deserves to be selected for the upcoming television project. The nomination and video project is being spearheaded and produced by local videographer and Seguin resident Denise Crettenden. Crettenden says with the support of dozens of other interested folks, the work to have Seguin selected for what HGTV is calling “the biggest renovation project ever” begins this weekend.
“There’s a husband and wife and they have been redoing their town in Mississippi, their hometown and now, they are looking for another small town somewhere else in the United States to do so similar things in and so, they are looking for towns under 40,000 in population. We fit the bill for that and who maybe need some sprucing up in their historic district and some of the different descriptions of this program say they are looking for a mixture of homes and commercial businesses, public spaces — they are looking for interesting architecture or historical things, things that they can really get in there and make a difference on it. I think we fit the bill for that. When I read the description, it just screamed Seguin to me. I think we are about to have quite a bit of population growth here and I would love to see us really working to keep our downtown — the interesting small place that it is and a vibrant center for retail and restaurants and all kinds of things — just a place where people really want to go,” said Crettenden.
Crettenden says although she will be behind the camera, the project is Seguin’s and encourages everyone to show their support and be a part of nominating the city.
“We are just looking for people who love Seguin to come down and just be a part of it. Part of it is just numbers. We just want to show the people, show the enthusiasm and just show that we would be a great pick for this program. I think it would be great to get that many people who love Seguin in one place. We are going to get some great video of that. We may get little interview snippets with people individually but mainly just a video of this crowd of people who are enthusiastic about their town,” said Crettenden. “But, what we’d like to do this weekend with the rally is show the enthusiasm that people have for our hometown. We want to show them that we would be a great place for them to come and make the show. We are a small town but we have a big heart and we want to showcase that this weekend.”
Crettenden says this weekend’s video, however, is only the first step in getting the recognition that Seguin deserves.
“We have to give a description of our town. We have to send some pictures but one of the main things that they wanted was a video. So, there’s going to be aspects of where we are going to take a little video tour of Seguin. We are going to look at some of the properties that are success stories and also some things that we think will be a great project for this show,” said Crettenden.
Although the city meets all the criteria for the nomination, it’s the uniqueness of the town that Crettenden hopes will help seal the deal for HGTV producers.
“I think part of it is just the heritage of Seguin. We’ve been here for so long. We have such an interesting mix of people that I think that makes us unique (and) the fact that we really have invested in our historic district. We’ve invested in our downtown and we do have those success stories and it would be interesting for them that we are not starting from scratch. We are not starting from square one. We have gone a certain distance with this and we can show how far we’ve come and this would just be the icing on the cake. This would be getting us to the finish line of really revitalizing that part of town and something that also might entice the producers of the show is we do have some really interesting architecture. We have some really interesting history behind some of the buildings and we have some groups who are already working on some of buildings and some things downtown and so I think that mix makes us perfect for this show and I would just love to showcase what is beautiful about Seguin for the whole country,” said Crettenden.
Crettenden says she’s especially excited to have the city’s full support in pursuing this nomination. She says the backing by the City of Seguin and its Seguin Main Street Program only reaffirms that the nomination is a community project.
Excited that citizens have come out to show their support is Main Street Director Kyle Kramm. Kramm says just having citizens come together is a win for Seguin.
“You know Main Street doesn’t always need to be the driving force but we can always partner with people to make things happen and that’s really what we are looking to do here is partner with this group of volunteers and that way, we can preserve our historic architecture and still make the improvements to some of our buildings around the square and in our downtown district that still needs a little bit of love still,” said Kramm.
Like Crettenden, Kramm says he too is hoping for a full house this Saturday afternoon in downtown Seguin.
“Hopefully, it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes and it’s going to be a gorgeous afternoon to be in downtown Seguin so why not take advantage of that and just have some fun and just show the support that you have for Seguin,” said Kramm.
The Home Town Takeover Community Rally in Central Park will get underway at 2 p.m. Saturday. Participants are encouraged to wear their Seguin and community pride if possible.