Proposed center would preserve French Canadian culture
Date: 8/29/2012
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHIOCPEE — Marie Meder is on a mission to help preserve an important part of the region's history and culture.
Meder is seeking volunteers in the effort to make a French Heritage Center a reality. She is hoping to find someone who has a building or even a room to house the organization that was founded in 2010.
She would like to have the center somewhere in the Springfield Street corridor of Chicopee because the city already has cultural centers devoted to the Irish and Polish immigrant experiences.
Meder said that 1.5 million French Canadians came to Massachusetts in the 19th and 20th centuries seeking work, which made the Bay State the second state with the highest concentration of the immigrants.
A center devoted to French Canadians is "the missing piece of the puzzle," she told Reminder Publications.
With the closing in 2009 of three French churches in the city, including Assumption Church on Springfield Street, Meder said the fear is "the culture is dying out."
She recalled how activities at Assumption Church, including French language variety shows, the singing of French songs in the choir and meat pie suppers, kept the history and culture alive.
Meder said she has "a picture from the early 1900s of my grandmother with a group of women posed in front of Assumption Church, where they used to have grand productions of plays in French."
The committee's goal is to "acquire a permanent building where the vision of a museum, learning center with a library, banquet hall and performance space may be realized."
Meder said the group is encouraging people of French Canadian heritage to join the effort by becoming members with a fee of $25. She is also hoping to interest local businesses in helping the group.
Since being formed the group has sponsored several events including "Réveil — Waking Up French Heritage," a concert and exhibit and a "Québécois Dance" with a five-piece band and guest performers from Chicopee Comprehensive High School. She said the students from Chicopee Comprehensive enjoyed learning about the French Canadian culture and the dances they performed at the event.
The group meets in Chicopee on the second Thursday of each month and the first one is scheduled for Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
For more information, including membership forms, contact Jeanne Hebert at 594-9332 or email Meder at
frenchconnection104@gmail.com.
The committee also has a Facebook page titled "French Heritage Center."
"We're looking for a miracle here, but we believe in miracles," Meder said.
