Over Feb. 13 and 14, the Comité des Loisirs de L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet celebrated 50 years at their annual winter carnival.
The carnival opened on Friday night with a parade of lights and an opening ceremony commemorating 50 years of the organization’s involvement in the community.
Organizer and committee president Jeanne Godin-McTiernan said that she was originally from the area but had only been a part of the committee for the past few years.
“I’ve been involved with the committee for about three years now. I come originally from the island, but I spent 35 years in the city and when I retired I came back,” she said. “All my life my job was working with children, with the community. I just wanted to [ . . . ] pay it forward.”
Mayor Jean-Louis Corriveau said that he was pleased with the turnout for the 50th anniversary and said that he hadn’t seen such a large parade in the municipality in many years.
“I want to thank the leisure committee, for all their hard work, all the volunteers,” he said in French.
The sole founding member of the committee remaining, Philippe La Salle, was on hand for the festivities, lighting a symbolic torch to be passed to Godin-McTiernan.
“Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you Philippe for your devotion to your community during these past 50 years, I hope to be able to continue this passion for the future of the leisure committee,” Godin-McTiernan said before the ribbon cutting.
On Saturday the Centre des loisirs was filled with all kinds of children’s activities, from a bouncy castle to outdoor skating and maple taffy on snow. Ski at school was on hand for the day to teach attendees how to master cross country skiing around a track on the ball field.
Godin-McTiernan said that the winter carnival is a long tradition that had been extremely popular but had dwindled over.
“I realized that the adults today were the kids who grew up with that, and they really miss that,” she said. “They talk about the ‘good old days’, well lets try to bring that back and kind of rebuild the spirit.“
