Born a Newfoundlander, Carolyn Muir Helfenstein began teaching in a one-room schoolhouse near King City, Ontario, then in Toronto.
Carol and her husband, Harry, purchased a Bruce County dairy farm in 1963. With their three children, they worked the land and cared for a high-producing herd of purebred Holsteins. They approached varied opportunities–hosting exchange students, breeding and showing sheepdogs, then buying a small-town weekly newspaper–saying, “Why not?”
In twelve years of publishing, The Teeswater News staff won fifteen awards in Ontario-wide competitions. Carol served on boards of provincial and national community newspaper associations.
“As a reporter and feature writer, I interviewed amazing rural people,” she says. “Our papers showed their strength, resiliency, and sense of adventure. I hope Why Not records those characteristics, not just of our paper, but of many small-town weeklies.”