Organized by Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet, the event is part of an effort to revitalize and preserve the history of the island, said Guylaine La Salle, one of the founders of the group.

“The mission of Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet is to give . . .

love to everything on the island that is tourists, heritage and cultural,” she said.

One of the very first things they were able to do with the money they fundraised was fix up the park at the entrance of the village at 92 chem. des Outaouais, she highlighted, and ever since they have had many projects on the go to help preserve the history of the area and attract tourists.

Since 2018 they have been working on a project to honour people’s roots in the area. By doing so they found about two thousand names of ancestors buried in the island’s cemetery. They are working on creating a space people can go and sit at the cemetery and see the names of their ancestors, La Salle explained.

The ideas for the projects are a team and town effort she highlighted, and the group of volunteers which includes herself the president, Michel Lamothe, a consultant, Irene Pieschke, the secretary and Philippe LaSalle, founder. Together they organize fundraising events to be able to carry out such projects because even with the funding they still have to put 20 per cent of the cost, Guylaine said.

This year they also made merchandise to sell, a 50/50 draw and a chance to win a jar of gummies if you guess the right amount.

“We want to make the island attractive again, I’m from the island and I have seven generations of La Salle on the island and it used to be a place where people came and there was a lot of tourism,” said Guylaine.

For Pieschke it’s about keeping the history of the island alive and making sure that it’s not forgotten. “It’s important because we’re from the island and we want to make sure everybody knows about it because otherwise nobody’s going to know about us,” she said.

For the event held on Saturday, they had about 73 participants and many sponsors who donated some prizes. They were able to raise over $2,000 from the fishing derby.

The first prize winners in the categories for kids, teens and adults were; Elias Moussaid, Alexandre Plouffe and Lori Smith. Each got $200 for winning first place for their heaviest fish, along with a trophy.

In 2018 the Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet decided to bring trophies back and this year three lucky winners get to take one home and get their names engraved on it.

Michel Lamothe one of the members of Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet and Samuel Brind ‘Amour eagerly waiting as he gets his fish weighed at the fourth annual fishing derby.

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