The following is this week’s I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE honoree by Ashton Greer and Nicole Van Hyfte
An interview with Drew Landis:
Tell me about yourself:
Well first, I’m very humbled to be recognized! I’m perfectly content to do my thing behind the scenes forever, and to me it really doesn’t seem like I’m doing much compared to what so many others are already doing. It just goes to show how Vermilion County is full of great people and unsung heroes doing great things every day.
I’m Drew Landis, and within the past year myself and a few others have founded Vermilion County Trail Alliance. We’re a group of outdoor enthusiasts, recreationalists, and community development advocates who are trying to help shift the narrative about Danville and Vermilion County using one of our biggest underused assets: our incredible natural resources. By those I mean our hills, ravines, creeks, rivers, and lakes that I think a lot of us tend to take for granted. They are truly incredible!
Our goal is to help make Vermilion County a regional recreational destination by increasing access to our natural resources through the expansion of mixed use trail networks, primarily for hiking and biking, but other activities as well. But maybe even more important than that is how these types of trail networks increase local quality of life and create experiences that people desire, which makes our community more competitive when folks consider whether to stay or move to the area.
Tell me about your family:
My lovely wife Hannah is a Certified Professional Midwife serving families in East Central Illinois. She is one of many, over a 40 year period, who ultimately helped get the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife Practice Act passed in Illinois in late 2021. She is also finishing up her Master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the U of I, where her focus is maternal nutrition and its direct and generational impacts
We have four kids, ages 15, 13, 11, and 8. Thankfully they seem to have mostly taken after their mother, and so are pretty awesome. My mom and sister both live in Danville, as do many of my in-laws, and I’ve got extended family throughout Vermilion County.
Have you always lived in Vermilion County?
Except for an 8 year stint in Bloomington-Normal during and after college, Vermilion County has always been home. We’ve lived in Danville for the past 15 years.
Did you go to school here? If not, where?
Jamaica High School Class of 1998, DACC Associate’s 2000
ISU class of 2002, Communication
What made you either stay here, or move here?
Ultimately a job with the family company, at the time International Greenhouse Company (later Greenhouse Megastore), brought us back. We had just had our first child and owned a struggling coffee shop on the outskirts of Normal. My brothers-in-law offered me a job selling and marketing greenhouses, so we sold the coffee shop and moved back in Sep. 2008 right as the housing crisis hit.
What jobs have you had, and have currently?
I worked my way up to Director of Marketing at Greenhouse Megastore, helping grow it to one of the leading online retailers of greenhouses and garden supplies. I left this position in June 2022 to spend more time at home with my kids before they all fly the nest, and to support my wife in her midwifery career. Now, I spend a lot of time putting these marketing skills to work with VCTA and for my wife’s practice.
Beyond that, I’m involved in the ownership and strategy teams behind Mad Goat and Royal Donut. I’m not involved much in daily operations, but we very much are involved in plotting out long-term goals and strategy. One of those goals, especially with Mad Goat, was building and maintaining a community space where folks could gather and exchange ideas, and I think we’ve done a really good job at that. It really dovetails with the work we’re doing with VCTA. I think trails and parks and outdoor spaces are just another variation on the “community space” we want to cultivate with our businesses.
What boards do you serve on?
Right now I’m really only serving on the VCTA board as President and director. We’re in the start-up period and that takes a lot of focus and persistence. It takes up a significant portion of my time and is unpaid, but it’s satisfying and I think the results will very soon speak for themselves.
What volunteer opportunities do you participate in?
I’m the clerk at the Peer Court Auction every year, and I often participate in volunteer opportunities with Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club.
Do you have any unique stories about your experience in Vermilion County?
So many people think “oh it’s Illinois it’s just flat.” And, yeah, we don’t have mountains and that’s basically true, except for around our rivers. Like, I can’t stress to everyone enough how totally unique our landscape is from anything within at least a couple hundred miles. Even Turkey Run, which everyone knows has incredible bedrock shelves and interesting geologic history, pales to the vastness of our river network. The three forks of the Vermilion River all lie at the bottom of steep valleys, over a hundred feet deep and up to a mile wide in places, and run nearly the length of the whole county. And a huge portion of this is public land! There is incredible natural beauty absolutely everywhere. I could take you places in Vermilion County that you just would not believe are right here in our backyard, often just a little stroll into the woods. Just a few days ago I found huge rock faces jutting out from the side of a hill along the river. I saw an eagle, up close, sitting on a sandbar snacking on a drowned baby deer. You just can’t get those types of experiences in many places, and I would love for everyone to have the opportunity.
What do you love about where you live?
So much! Obviously my passion for the outdoors is met by Vermilion County, but we have a deep, rich history too. It’s another thing I wish folks appreciated more. Danville got so big, so quick, and as a result we have incredible early history. Abe Lincoln was made here! Uncle Joe Cannon was on the first cover of Times magazine. Dick van Dyke is certifiable royalty. I understand our fortunes have waned over the years, but I just don’t understand how that doesn’t fill you with pride.
I also deeply love the generosity of this community. We’re not the richest folks around, but I think you’d have trouble finding a more generous bunch.
What do you do for fun?
Mostly spend time walking or riding my bike in the woods.
Anything else you’d like to add?
VCTA has recently been awarded a grant from the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) for a professionally designed trail system on a property very near and dear to me, west Harrison Park. IMBA is one of the top trail advocacy groups in the country, and their projects are known to be big tourist attractions with transformative potential for rural communities. We’ve been busy for the past year, but the project really kicks off this spring. There is so much opportunity no matter what your specific interest might be, so anyone interested in the Harrison project specifically, or VCTA and its work more generally, can check out vctrail.org or our Facebook page to follow along.
If you have someone you would like to share,
visit https://forms.gle/deCPiQ1cxn1pDLhZ9
or contact Ashton Greer, City of Danville agreer@cityofdanville.org or
Nicole Van Hyfte, Vermilion Advantage nvanhyfte@vermilionadvantage.com.
