By Terry Ouellette
ST. AGATHA, Maine – The Ste. Agathe Historical Society held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Longfellow School during the town’s Summerfest weekend celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Town of St. Agatha.
The ceremony began with the raising of the flag with Gaylen Thibeault, Sandra San Antonio and Commander of the American Legion Cyr Plourde Post #145 Roger Gervais. All three are board members of the Ste. Agathe Historical Society. Thibeault obtained the flag pole from the University of Maine at Fort Kent and Pierre Chamberland of St. Agatha donated his time and talent to make the flag pole a perfect fit for the historical site. San Antonio donated the first American flag to fly over the grounds near the Longfellow School. All in attendance joined in to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and Linda Bouchard added the French version.
Keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Fern Desjardins of St. Agatha who rendered a most interesting history of the restored Longfellow School. In the ribbon cutting line were the volunteers and guests who all made this 5-year project possible. Gaylen Thibeault, Roger Gervais, Stan Albert, Dana Michaud, Roland Guerrette and Clifford Guerrette who attended the Longfellow School as a little boy, Gary Boucher, Jeff Trottier, Harold Chamberland, Jean Chamberland and Pauline Ouellette who donated the school in 2018, Sylvio Albert who donated a substantial amount of money for the project, Dr.Desjardins who delivered the ceremonial speech, and Terry Ouellette. Behind Jeff and Harold are Maggie and Jacques Blais.
This restoration project has been made possible in part by the Maine Acadian Heritage Council, USDA Rural Development, Douglas & Tammie Lerman who donated the land for the project, the many monetary donations and most importantly the volunteers who have donated their time and talents to this project for the last five years.
