The Clarendon and Starks Corners chapters of the Pontiac Women’s Institute held their annual information session on Wednesday morning at the Shawville United Church, bringing together community leaders in agriculture, healthcare and education to share updates on past projects and new initiatives.
The public event featured four groups of speakers who discussed local topics with the crowd.
“We have four areas that we talk about at our meetings, and they are agriculture, education, community, and health, so we tried to find a speaker that would cover each of those categories,” said club president Elaine Lang.
Pontiac High School vice-principal Luke McLaren kicked off the day with a discussion of some of the school’s most recent successes, including the acceptance of a $10,000 grant to purchase canoes for the school’s outdoor education program.
“If you want to know where the heartbeat of our school is, that is one of the areas,” McLaren said of the program.
McLaren also highlighted the school’s agriculture program, which returned this academic year after a long absence from the curriculum. He said teacher Phil Holmes is leading students in classes about horticulture, agricultural business, and is taking them on a variety of extracurricular activities, including vegetable sales and visits to livestock farms.
“He is going to be doing some greenhouse work with the students, but it’s going to be much more than the use of the greenhouse. The program is going to be hands-on with animals,” he said.
Megan Tubman, who was representing PHS as the school’s welding teacher, spoke about the growth the program has undergone since she started teaching in the early 2000s, estimating that one-third of students are now part of the program.
McLaren noted the program has helped students who might not otherwise have completed high school work on a skill and get employment in the community.
“Our grads were coming out from the welding program and getting good-paying jobs,” he said.
In the second presentation, Serena Larivière and Veronique Lamoureux from Outaouais health authority CISSSO provided information about a free mental health training available to community members through a program called the Beacon Network.
Lamoureux said the goal is to train people – often those who are often interacting with the public, such as bus drivers or grocery store cashiers – to recognize when members of the community might be struggling with mental health issues, and to point them to the right services where they can get professional help.
“We’re giving them extra tools, so that when they continue to help people, they have the correct knowledge on which services are available and where to send them,” she said, adding that the program has been in place for four years and there are currently 800 individuals with beacon training in the Outaouais.
The pair added that anyone interested in taking the training can contact AutonHomme Pontiac at 819-648-2309 or by email at eclaireurspontiac@yahoo.com.
Shanna Armstrong and Maryse Vallières-Murray from the MRC Pontiac shared the latest updates on the AgriSaveur project, the MRC’s business idea to bring back the Shawville abattoir, along with a transformation facility for a diversity of local agricultural products.
“We just explained the whole AgriSaveur project, and how it’s an umbrella with three pillars, one of which is the abattoir, [ . . . ] one of which is the commercial kitchen and the third one is the storefront,” she said following the presentation, adding that the commercial kitchen will be available for local people to rent.
Gillian MacDougall, a former Quebec 4-H provincial coordinator and current volunteer with the Shawville 4-H club, was the day’s final speaker, providing attendees with an update about the latest goings-on in the club.
MacDougall highlighted the recent achievements of a couple local 4-H members, including Reese
Rusenstrom, who in a few months will attend an international 4-H conference in Washington, D.C., as well as Ben Judd, who will travel to Ottawa for the 4-H Canada Citizenship Congress.
“It’s really exciting that our Shawville participants are taking advantage of these national and international opportunities,” MacDougall told THE EQUITY following her presentation.
Lang said she was pleased with the quality of the speakers at the event and the variety of topics covered.
“The speakers were wonderful, and had very good information,” she said, adding that she enjoyed learning about what is going on in the community.
The event concluded, as it traditionally does, with a potluck provided by the institute members for the approximately 50 attendees.
