Newsmaker Events

On June 15 the George Bryson Cultural House annual general meeting was held at the House in Mansfield.    An open house will be held on July 15 (see announcement in this Bulletin) and a blueberry festival in August.
During the weekend June 17-18 members of the Bryson family gathered at the Spruceholme Inn, in Fort Coulonge, to reflect on the history of their family and to hold a memorial service for a family member, Bryson Moore, who died in World War II.  The Spruceholme Inn is one of the family's former homes.  George Bryson Sr., who died in 1900, built a log slide at the Coulonge Falls, in the location where there are now cement slides, and the region's first sawmill in 1843.  The family attended a church service on the Sunday morning, followed by a tree dedication ceremony at Bryson House, which is now owned by the Quebec Heritage Trust and contains a museum registered as the Pontiac Genealogy Society - Key to the Past.

The four-band fundraising effort at The Garage in Shawville, on Friday June 16, exceeded its target.  An audience of 82 listened to performances by Nefarious Souls, Thurside, Harmonic Distortion and In Safe Hands, organized to raise funds for travel to the battle of the bands, to be held in July at Club Lambi in Montreal.  This event was previously announced in this Bulletin.

The town of Quyon now displays murals illustrating its history: a winter scene of logging and syrup making, located near the ferry to Ontario; a waterfall driving a water wheel on the side of M & R Feeds on Egan Street; historical scenes on the façade of Gavan's Hotel, on Clarendon Street.  In addition there is a display, entitled "Friends of the Pontiac", showing thousands of signatures and good wishes from visitors from the Valley and all over Canada and the United States.
Created during the summer of 2005, the murals are the work of local artists Lindsay Trudeau and students Julia St. Laurent and Cassandra Dinel McEwen.  They constitute the first project in the plan devised by the Quyon Economic Development Council to beautify Quyon and develop education, tourism and employment.  Phase two was the release of James Robinson's book How Quyon Came To Be, also referred to on this page.  Phase three will be the creation of a brochure on Quyon, which may be combined with the organization of guided tours by seniors and students around the area's landmarks.

On June 4 the Heritage Old Time Country Music Association (HOTCMA) held a Jamboree at the Quyon Lions Hall.  The house band was Rick Sernoskie's Bay Connection.  A dance was performed by Savannah Moreau of Bristol and Nora Daoust of Quyon. This is the second time the Jamboree has been held in Quyon.  The Association is devoted to preserving the traditional music of the Ottawa Valley. Proceeds go  to cover promotional and performer costs.  The Board of Directors, under the presidency of Stan Callaghan of Pembroke, meet every month in Cobden, Ontario.
The next Jamboree will be held in July in Matawatchan.  The next Pontiac gathering will take place on August 19 at a flat-paddle event at Rapides-des-Joachims.

On May 29 Pontiac High School held its drama festival. In the school's theatre Students in Grades 7 and 10 performed three one-act plays: Wings for the King, Shiver My Timbers and Hillbilly Blues.  The plays were selected by members of the Grade 10 English class, and Grade 10 students took care of the acting, costumes, props, ticket sales and stage management.  There were musical interludes between the plays, also provided by students.

On June 5 Wakefield Ensemble hosted a meeting of forty local residents to hear the presentation of the Community Vitality Initiative Assessment prepared by Mike Stolte of the Centre for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL). After reviewing this report the participants voted on the areas of focus and actions it recommended.  Four priorities were identified: (1) enhancing the "Wakefield Brand" as a destination, (2) cooperative marketing using artisans as a focal point, (3) initiatives to link the English and French communities, and (4) creating an annual festival of arts and culture
The project is part of the Canadian pilot project in the Community Vitality Initiative (CVI), a process designed to boost economic and social development opportunities in communities.
For more information visit the website at www.theCIEL.com, or call David Nobbs at (819) 459-1600

On May 19 Shawville's 4-H square dancers hosted their third annual Old Time Square Dance at the Recreation Association Hall.  The teams of youngsters gave an exhibition of their dancing before the floor was opened up to spectators.  Music was provided by the Valley Ramblers, two of whom, John and Marilyn Miller, help their daughter Stacy to coach the teams.  The caller was Cindya Labine, aged 14.
The dancers meet for practices every night at the Recreation Association Hall.

Robert and Brenda Rooney have just returned from a visit to Alexandra Township in South Africa, where they have been shooting their documentary The Great Grannie Revolution, dealing with the relationship between the Wakefield Grannies (of which Brenda is a founding member) and the Alexandra Go-Gos, a group of South African grandmothers.  The focus of the film is Petronella Makharya, a grandmother raising her two grandchildren and two adopted children.  The project has received $6000 from the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which funds grassroots projects intended to further the struggle against AIDS in Africa.  Rooney Productions is still looking for funding to ensure that the documentary is ready to be shown at the Foundation's conference in Toronto in the days leading up to the World AIDS Conference in August.
For more information visit the website at www.rooneyproductions.com

Murals at Philemon Wright
It has become a tradition at Philemon Wright High School to hold an annual competition, in the Grade 11 Art class, for the design of 3 new murals for the school’s halls.   The winning designs are selected by a vote of students and staff.This year’s winners are Nicki Dohn, Samantha Guigue and Kaitlin Valois.  They are at this time finishing the murals with the aid of a team of classmates.

Book Week at Lord Aylmer Elementary School. On May 25 grade 5 French immersion students at Lord Aylmer held a book fair.  Divided into teams, they made comic books and puppet plays illustrating the plot of a story selected by each team, and used them to tell the plot to younger students.  The fair marked the completion of a project organized by French immersion teacher Carolann Bréau-Brassard, who had challenged her students to read 1000 novels during the year.  Selected stories included A Dragon in the Way, The Poor Little Wolf Cub, and The Mysterious Librarian.

Symmes and D’Arcy McGee Schools win Awards.

Bands from Symmes Junior High School and D’Arcy McGee High School have made their mark at the 2006 Festival des Harmonies et Orchestres Symphoniques du Québec held in Sherbrooke during the weekend May 27-28.  Over 10,000 young musicians from Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and BC participated in the Festival.
Symmes Junior Band won a Gold mention in its category and a bursary of $150, and in their respective categories Symmes Senior Band and D’Arcy McGee High School Band won  Silver mentions and  Symmes/D’Arcy Jazz Band a Gold mention.

Stacey Acker, a writer from Nova Scotia who now lives in Clarendon Township, has been awarded a plaque by the International Library of Poetry and poetry.com for her poem "When Life is Rough", posted on the website poetry.com.  The poem will now be featured in a hardcover book and has also been selected as one of 33 top poems which are to be recorded on a CD poetry collection.

On May 19 the Minor Niners, a group of four students from Philemon Wright High School, performed before for the first time outside the school, before an audience at the Black Sheep Inn which demanded, and got, an encore. 
The group consists of David Taggart (bass), Jesse Polowin (lead guitar), Jake Watson (drums) and Emmett Pavey (rhythm guitar).
Anyone interested in the group can communicate with them by e-mail at edjjmusic@hotmail.com

On May 18 travel writer Laurie Gough, from Wakefield, attended the launch of her new book Kiss the Sunset Pig, at Nicholas Hoare Books in Ottawa.  Her narrative tells of a journey across the United States to recover youthful memories and at the same time recalls past adventures encountered in Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. Limited numbers of autographed copies of Laurie Gough's book are available at Solstice Books in Wakefield.

Samantha Everts, the creator of Amplify 819, has been awarded the West Quebecers Award for Leadership for Youth, to be presented to her at the Awards Banquet on June 2.  See the announcement of the Banquet on our Home Page, and the notice of the next Amplify 819 concert in Shawville in this Bulletin.

On May 6 Saint James Anglican Church at Otter Lake hosted a concert by The Northern Sons, a bluegrass and country group which is well established in the Pontiac.  The evening also included story telling by members of the group, who donated three compact discs as door prizes.  Refreshments were provided by members and friends of the church. Saint James Anglican Church is part of the Parish of Northern Pontiac. The concert was given as the third in a series designed to meet a need in the community and to make use of church space with excellent acoustics. Proceeds are used to support the work of the church.  Future concerts are being planned.

Dominic D'Arcy, the singing policeman from Sheenboro, has been given the key to the City of Ottawa, in honour of his dual career as singer and police officer. Dominic D'Arcy, now retired from the force, has received the Governor General's Award three times, ran his own television show D'Arcy's Beat for five years, and was responsible for a "Rising Stars Program" aimed at bringing on young performers.

On Saturday, April 29 the Outaouais Heritage WebMagazine was launched in Wakefield.  This new Internet history forum is an initiative of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) and the Gatineau Valley Historical Society.  Its purpose is to showcase the history of Western Quebec.  Modelled on similar websites created for the Eastern Townships and the Laurentians it joins a series of regional heritage websites created by QAHN as part of its Quebec Heritage Web project.  It will present stories, archival photography and historic documents that record the development of the Outaouais.  It will also feature local history writing from many of Western Quebec's best known English-language writers.
QAHN is a non-profit, non-partisan umbrella group whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. The Website editor is Matthew Farfan. The webmagazine can be found at
http://outaouais.quebecheritageweb.com

On Saturday, April 29, the puppetry course given by Ilse-Marie and Noel Gates at the Lucy Faris Library in Aylmer concluded with the performance of two short plays: Suzanne doit ranger ses choses and Bones of Contention.  The event was attended by an appreciative audience of parents.  Ilse-Marie Gates has written an article on her view of what the course achieved, and this will appear, in French and English, in the Aylmer Bulletin.