Annual VEQ Fall Fest a celebration of community
Annual Fall Fest a celebration of community
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
As many as 1,000 people poured into the gym of Quebec High School (QHS) on Sept. 21 during Fall Fest, the annual community fair organized for the English-speaking community of Quebec City and the South Shore by Voice of English-speaking Québec.
On the stage set up in the school parking lot, the Local Vocals multilingual choir, the Shannon Irish Dancers and the 78th Fraser Highlanders performed before Flavia Nascimento’s Brazilian- inspired fanfare brought the drums and whistles of a South American carnival inside the gym. Later in the afternoon, James Allan, a square dance caller from Kinnear’s Mills and the founder of the Kinnear’s Mills Celtic Festival, got people dancing.
While their parents and siblings watched the show, younger kids enjoyed the bouncy castle, jungle gym and arts and crafts activities, or helped themselves to affordable hot dogs served by QHS students and staff.
Inside, dozens of English-language or bilingual churches, community groups and educational institutions had stands set up, alongside small businesses; CBC Québec and the QCT were also on hand to meet listeners and readers.
Joanne Arsenault is the vice-principal of Quebec High School, which has hosted the event for the past two years, ever since the previous host school – St. Vincent School in Sainte-Foy – closed. “We talk to parents, to former students, to people who want to organize visits to the school – I just talked to someone who wanted to see if we could find her old yearbook. In past years, we’ve had people apply for jobs. It’s a great community event.”
Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, United Church and evangelical congregations shared space in the gym with apparent ecumenical good humour. At the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church booth – where a subtle sign announced that the congregation rejected religious nationalism and believed in the separation of church and state – Rev. Katherine Burgess and volunteer Gina Farnell pointed out that churches are often the first stop for English speakers who are new in town, whether they are new immigrants, international students or new arrivals from other parts of Canada.
“Fall Fest is a great op- portunity to take up space and connect with other churches in the community, because we have a lot that we fundamentally agree on,” said Rev. Jeff Metcalfe, canon theologian of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, who greeted passersby at the church’s stand alongside Bishop Bruce Myers and parish volunteers.
City councillors and council candidates – including Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith and Coun. David Weiser, member of the executive committee responsible for relations with cultural communities – milled around listening to voters’ questions, which mainly centred around transit. Québec d’Abord Leader Claude Villeneuve attended with the party’s candidate for Montcalm– Saint-Sacrement, Félix Bouffard. “Since I moved to the city five years ago, I haven’t had much of a chance to get to know the English-speaking community and listen to their concerns,” said Bouffard, who is from the South Shore. “This is a great opportunity.”
In the relative peace and quiet of the QHS library, representatives from the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale were running a bilingual job fair for the second straight year. “This is the best place to look for candidates who are bilingual and who have a good enough level of English to work in our English-language designated institutions,” said Marleen Cameron, head of recruitment services at the CIUSSS, referring to Jeffery Hale Hospital and Saint Brigid’s Home. Kerry Ann King and Christy Ruggiero of the Jeffery Hale-Saint Brigid’s Users’ Committee were also on hand, taking names of people who were interested in volunteering to organize enrichment programs with seniors. “We want [volunteering] to be an entry point for people to know how to get involved in the community,” Ruggiero said. “Fall Fest is good for that.”
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