50 Years for Le Guide, 10 Years for Me

COMMUNITY. As Le Guide celebrates its 50th anniversary, I celebrate 10 years of writing and translating articles for the weekly’s English Community section. As the voice of What’s New in Brome-Missisquoi at community radio station CIDI 99.1 FM, I have felt uniquely positioned to write about the events and objectives of our many local non-profit and community organizations.

By Jim Ferrier, Special Collaboration

My mandate for Le Guide has been to cover cultural and community events, informing Townshippers about events in their town and other nearby towns so that anglophone readers, although somewhat spread around our various municipalities, might feel a broader sense of community belonging.

Below, in loose alphabetical order, are some of the artists, community groups and events that Le Guide has helped to publicize through my articles.

Singer-songwriter Amos Joannides, the Arts Alive Festival, Avante Women’s Centre, Brome County Historical Society, singer-songwriter Sarah Biggs, Brome Lake Land Foundation, Brome Bright Lights Story Contest, Brome Lake Garden Club, Brome-Bolton Fish and Game Club, Brome-Missisquoi Campus, Brome-Missisquoi Youth Foundation, Canadian Club of the Yamaska Valley, Celtic Harmonies International Festival, community radio station CIDI 99.1 FM (that’s me !).

Then there’s Creek United Church, Dunham House, Emmanuel United Church, Fulford Strawberry Socials, International Women’s Day Dinners, Knowlton Lions Club, Knowlton Literary Festival, Knowlton Players, Knowlton United Church, writer Louise Penny, artist Mary S. Martin, Missisquoi Museum, Parish of Brome, PGI Invitational for Local Literacy, Pot Pourri Choir, Quebec Anglo Heritage Network, local performances by Montreal’s Repercussion Theatre, Shriners, Freemasons and the Order of the Eastern Star, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Sunshine House Mansonville, Sunshine Theatre Productions, The Acoustic Village, The Adaptive Sports Foundation, The Honeysuckle Sisters, The Lovely Brothers, Theatre Lac-Brome, Township Toddlers, Townshippers Association, Yamaska Merry Gentlemen, Yamaska Valley Optimist Club.

That’s just from a quick skim of my article titles over the years, so no doubt I have omitted many names, but even I was surprised at the very wide variety of subjects. The events and groups are mostly still around, but since the demand for print advertising has fallen off so much with the growth of the internet, fewer articles can be published, and that includes those in English. That means that we as a community are losing our local voice and our local news. So support local media, tell print advertisers where you saw their ad, and make it clear you want them to continue supporting local content.

Le Guide has a long history of supporting the English community. Before my time Le Guide published English-language articles by Terry Scott, Dann Rogers, Jim Lawrence, Véronique Rondan, Valerie Kerr, Christopher Chapman, Wendy Denman and Ralph Maddocks.