Aylmer Community Events

December 16-18.
The Symmes Starquest Players present:
"How the Grinch Stole Christmas' at Symmes Junior High, 180 North Street, the Aylmer sector of Gatineau. General admission is $5.00 per person. Performances run Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30pm; doors open at 7pm. There is also a Saturday matinee performance at 3pm; doors open at 2:30pm.

December 18. A dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’
“A Christmas Carol” presented by the Regional Association of West Quebecers at Christ Church, 101 Symmes St. Aylmer.
Featured reader is Meredith Henderson, 1998 Gemini Award-Winning Actress and star of upcoming Shania Twain movie. There are two readings at 2 pm and 8 pm.
Tickets cost $10.00 for adults, $8.00 for seniors and $8.00 for children 12-16 yrs. Tickets available in Aylmer at Tea ‘n Tole, 1055 Ch. Aylmer, West Quebecers Office, 53 Principale St, and St. Vincent de Paul House, 39 Dalhousie.
All proceeds go towards St. Vincent de Paul’s “Feed-a-Child” program.
For more information call: 819 682-9602.

Musical Events at the Legion. Artists with links to our region playing at the Aylmer Legion Hall, 59 Bancroft, Aylmer Sector, Gatineau.  Thursday evenings. 
December 16.  Backbeat.  Local band from Aylmer.
December  23.  Al Visser, originally from Aylmer.
Membership not required.  Proceeds in support of the Aylmer Legion.
Full meal at 6.00 pm. Cost: $6.00 per person. Entertainment at 7.30 pm.
For information call: (819) 684-7063.

Until January 3, 2005. Second exhibition of puppets by local children at the Aylmer Library. Once again, Ilse-Marie Gates has been conducting a course on making and performing with puppets at the Lucy Faris Library in Aylmer (see Archive, at June 25, for our entry about the previous course and exhibition.  During the fall a class of eight students have been learning how to make finger puppets and puppets constructed with cooking spoons.  The spoon puppets, which can be seen in the right-hand picture, were used to practice putting on two little plays based on the stories of Red Riding Hood and Hansel & Gretel.  
With the assistance of her husband Noel Gates, Mrs. Gates has undertaken this project free of charge, and with the support of the Library, as a service to the community. The class has been open both to Francophone and to Anglophone children. Their parents have helped to make it a success by contributing material.
Mrs. Gates hopes that, both in Aylmer and elsewhere in the region, her activity will help to stir interest in puppetry, an art which opens up unlimited possibilities of creation, at little cost, for both children and adults. It also offers a wonderfully flexible tool to teachers and to communicators.
It is planned to run another course, for ten weeks beginning Saturday, January 15, for children aged 10 to 12.  For information call: Ilse-Marie Gates at (819) 684-0846.

Heritage Prize awarded to Enid Page. 
At the Annual Soirée des Culturiades, held on November 23, Enid Page, of the Aylmer Heritage Association, was awarded the Heritage Prize (Prix du Patrimoine) by the Fondation pour les arts, les lettres et la culture en Outaouais.
We announced this event on the General page of our summer issue, where it was noted that the City of Gatineau was offering a prize for an original art work, to be awarded as the “Hommage Ville de Gatineau”  at Les Culturiades. The prize was for a  work of art created within the last five years by any artist within the Outaouais or the National Capital Region.  The selection was made by a jury.  The prize was awarded to Cécile Lorrain, who, at the age of 86, continues to be active teaching art to senior citizens at the La Cabane en bois rond.