The Alberta French association works hard to keep the French community alive and prominent throughout the province.
With local chapters set up in 13 regions throughout Alberta, L’Association Canadienne Française de l'Alberta (ACFA) ensures each respective community has access to French resources while also promoting the culture and language through various events.
To acknowledge the dedicated volunteers that work year-round with the association’s local chapters, ACFA hosts an annual awards ceremony. Award recipients are nominated for several categories by their peers and are then selected by a panel of judges.
This year three Jasperites have been handpicked for the honour.
Husband and wife—Laurent Bolduc and Karina Hernandez—are the first Jasperites to ever be inducted into the association’s Order of the Wise, an award given to community members who have devoted decades of their lives promoting their culture and language.
The nomination process for the Order of the Wise takes place every two years, as opposed to annually like the rest of the ACFA’s awards.
“We both grew up in Montreal and then we had our kids here so it was important for us that they know their culture and have access to their language,” Hernandez said.
During the early 2000s, Bolduc and Hernandez were at the forefront of a group of locals pushing for a French school in Jasper.
“We’re in a national park and there wasn’t even an immersion program,” Bolduc said. “We’re a bilingual country—we shouldn’t of had to fight for that, but we did. We need to fight because culture is what makes life worth living for.
“If we don’t fight for culture then we’ll wake up in 50 years and we’ll all be speaking the same language and watching the same TV shows.”
Bolduc and Hernandez along with a small group of other locals started a petition, demanding access to French education. The petition was brought to the Conseil Scolaire Centre-Nord, the francophone school board for the region, and in 2002 École Desrochers was born, but the school was a far cry from what it is today.
“There were about 14 students and the school was actually just a classroom split in half that was hidden in the back of the old high school,” Hernandez said.
Although the community technically got its French school, Bolduc said he knew this hidden classroom set-up couldn’t last for long.
He signed up to sit on the francophone school board, trekking to Edmonton every month for meetings.
“He would leave first thing in the morning and get back late at night and travel through snow storms,” Hernandez said. “For him it was important for that local voice to be heard in Edmonton.”
After years of negotiating, the school—which was in dire need of more space—moved into the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion in 2006.
Eight years later, the school moved again, this time into the new Jasper joint school facility, offering primary to Grade 12 classes.
While the couple said they are honoured and humbled to be selected for the Order of the Wise, they also said they feel a little undeserving because École Desrochers would not be what it is today if it weren’t for the support of the rest of the community.
“As a community we worked hard to get this,” Bolduc said. “It’s not something that was easy especially when the people doing this are all people that are busy with work, their families and everyday struggles.”
Aside from his work with the school, Bolduc also played a major role in establishing Jasper’s ACFA chapter. He served as the chapter’s president from 2003 to 2006 and is currently the board’s vice-president.
Snagging the Guy-Lacombe award for their volunteer involvement, is Jasperite Lucie Beauchamps.
The Quebec City native has been living in Jasper since 1993, and currently works as a translator with Parks Canada.
Since making Jasper her home, Beauchamps has dedicated hundreds of hours to local francophone events and was a big supporter of École Desrochers in its infancy.
Beauchamps has also sat on the board of Jasper’s ACFA since its inception.
“I’m involved with everything that has to do with French,” Beauchamps said. “It’s very humbling to get recognized like this because it’s your own community that nominates you and because it’s a cause that’s so important to me.
“I need to keep my culture and I hope that in the future my children find it just as important.”
Beauchamps, Hernandez and Bolduc will formerly receive their awards at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Oct. 15.
Kayla Byrne
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