Letter:Gratitude expressed in different ways:

A proud Ernest Chauvet of the Centralta Tourism Society talks about the Francophone mural, a three-dimensional contribution to Canada’s Francophone history. – File Photo

Editor:

The article recently written by Lucie Roy of the Morinville News was well appreciated by the board of the Centralta Tourism Society, `CTS`. The year 2011-2012 was filled with involvement and varied successes. In Legal the CTS, painted five more murals. Two of the five murals will be installed shortly, which are on the 4-H movement and the Knight of Columbus. To this Legal shall have 14 new banners depicting the community, on the Theme “Ensemble-Together”. These are to be unveiled on April 20th. In Morinville, 7 new vignettes and two more tableaus for St-Jean Baptiste Park, on local history, shall be unveiled for St-Jean Baptiste festivities in June. In St-Albert we contributed to the 150th anniversary of the City and provided the bilingual services for the Canadian Special Olympics.

All these initiatives were done in cooperation with the municipalities, the provincial government and local groups. For the Society, Tourism Development cannot be done in isolation; it must have cooperative efforts and the volunteerism of many people. March 24th was an event where representation from the Town of Morinville, Town of Westlock, County of Westlock and the City of St-Albert joined with us to thank Mr. Kowalski who supported community initiated projects, and to Mr. Louis Forcade who donated over 350 hours of welding to our visual arts projects since 1997.

The evening, predominantly in English with translations provided for portions in French, featured two fiddle champions, Daniel Gervais and Calvin Vollrath. (Calvin will be in Morinville’s Community Centre for his Spring Fling on April 20, 21, 22 and he will be accompanied by 2011 Canadian Fiddle Champion Daniel Gervais on the 21st). Also present were area artists Joelle Préfontaine and Jean-Claude Lajoie who led the crowd in responsorial songs.

The jovial French-Canadian climate of the evening was but an extension of the spirit of gratitude the Society wanted to express! In a way, all the painting found in Legal and Morinville are but expression of gratitude to the founders of our communities, most sponsored by families towards their grandparents. Similarly the steel monument, for which we have still to find a home, is a symbol of gratitude to the cooperative effort by the First Nations, British and French-Canadian, who together pushed back the Americans when they attacked Canada in 1775-1777 and 1812-1814. It also reflects the hospitality provided by these founding people in welcoming the immigrants who in turn have enriched our country, Canada.
In 2012-2013 the Centralta Tourism Society expects to find a home for the Steel Monument and will respond to opportunities with municipalities to further tourism in the area.

Centralta Tourism Society

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