To the editor:
Time has flown by since the original application for the Congrès Mondial Acadien. It was a torturous and expensive process. However, with the ground work done for the last 50 years or more and the cooperation of all our towns, voila! Let’s enjoy the fruit of our labor this month. We were the winning bid with the theme l’Acadie des Terres et Forêts. Etienne Deschenes and his wife Sylvie have done a production by that name for many years at St. Jacques, teaching in song and dance our arrival here on both sides of the border. Last Thursday, Lise Pelletier of the Acadian Archives at UMFK presented the same at a packed Madawaska High School Library. It was a great avant goût as to what is here this month in Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec.
I welcomed Charles Collin’s crie de coeur in the St. John Valley Times a few weeks ago, urging us not to miss our chances to participate fully as spectators and volunteers. It took a voluminous amount of work by many in our communities to make this a reality. The vibrant colors displayed in front of our homes and businesses show that volunteer spirit and creativity lives.
Brenda and Alan Jepson of Crown Productions are filming. Their “Acadian Story” was broadcast last Thursday night on Maine Public Television. TV5 is back to do another film focusing on the Mass and Tintamarre on August 15. Radio Canada/TV will also be broadcasting live, telling the world that Acadians still exist en français et en anglais. It feels as if the 1604 closely guarded secret is out of the bag.
The creative economy prospers when there is an exchange between our neighbors to the north. We don’t have the ocean, but we have something very precious: intelligent, friendly, welcoming people, incredible scenery, and a history to be appreciated and shared.
Venez nous voir! Appréciez notre gande fête! View this once-in-a-lifetime event, the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien/The Worldwide Acadian Congress. FMI call 1-844-740-2014 or check www.cma2014.com for a complete list of great events.
Judy Ayotte Paradis
Frenchville
