CYR PLANTATION — Four signs will soon welcome travelers to a tourist area known as “L’Acadie des terres et des forêts” or Acadia of the Lands and Forests.”
Contributed photo
Officials involved with the organization of the 2014 World Acadian Congress (WAC) applaud as a new sign marking the southern gateway to Acadia of the Lands and Forest is unveiled in Cyr Plantation on August 9. Among over 50 community members from Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec who joining in the celebration included, from left, Louise Martin, Maine delegate to the International WAC Organizing Committee; Emilien Nadeau (partially hidden), Quebec delegate to the International WAC Organizing Committee; Huguette Plourde, president of the New Brunswick delegation on the International WAC Organizing Committee; Jean-Paul Savoie of New Brunswick, President of the International WAC Organizing Committee; and Jason Parent, president of the Maine delegation on the International WAC Organizing Committee. At right of the sign, also joining in the ceremony were Don Levesque, Chairman of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee for the 2014 WAC; Eric Mathieu Doucet, Representative of the Societe Nationale de L’Acadie; State Sen. Troy Jackson of Allagash; State Rep. Bernard Ayotte of Caswell; State Rep. John Martin of Eagle Lake; State Rep. Ken Theriault of Madawaska; Dan Deveau, Cyr Plantation Selectman and Town Manager; Daniel LaPointe, President of the Maine Acadian Heritage Council; Lorie Ireland of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins Caribou Office; and Sharon Campbell of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s Presque Isle Office.
The first sign was unveiled on Monday at the Governor Brann One-Room Schoolhouse on U.S. Rte. 1, in Cyr Plantation, south of Van Buren and next to the “St. John Valley welcomes you” sign. The new bilingual signs reads, “L’Acadie des terres et forêts Host Region of the 2014 World Acadian Congress.”
This is a project of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee of the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien, the Maine delegation to the International Comité Organisateur du Congrès Mondial Acadien 2014 (Organizing committee of the 2014 World Acadian Congress), and the Maine Acadian Heritage Council.
“The event was the first official ‘pre-Congress’ activity held in the Maine sector of Acadia of the Lands and Forests,” said Jason Parent, president of the Maine delegation to the international committee. “The unveiling of this new sign will serve as the kickoff to the official countdown to the largest event ever hosted in the St. John Valley. We expect our friends from New Brunswick and Quebec will join us as we unveil the very first gateway sign indicating the coming of the World Acadian Congress in the international region that will serve as host for the fifth such gathering,” he added.
Newly elected MRCC Chairman Chad Carter of Madawaska agrees with Parent and expressed that he wants the signs to be a constant reminder that the World Acadian Congress is coming to the area with an estimated 50,000 participants who will visit the St. John Valley for three weeks in August 2014.
The August 9 date was selected for the sign unveiling for its significance on a number of counts, particularly because the date:
• marks the one-year anniversary of the official announcement that the 2014 CMA will be held in Acadia of the Lands and Forests;
• is exactly four years prior to the opening ceremonies of CMA 2014 and
• marks the 168th anniversary of the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that split in two what was until then one community spanning the St. John River.
The Acadia of lands and forests aims to reunite that community. L’Acadie des terres et des forêts does not start and end at the international border, it is a region that encompasses northern Maine, northwest New Brunswick and the Témiscouata region of Québec province.
