User:St-Bernardienne/sandbox

St-Bernardin

General

A rural community located in the heart of Prescott Russell. It is part of The Nation Township found in Eastern Ontario. This tiny, peaceful village is home to approximately 300 inhabitants and about a 1000 cows. Driving through this beautiful town you may notice that it is home to many different farms. Dairy farms are the most common but you may also find some chicken farms (layers and broilers) as well as a goat farm. Cash crop is also a big source of revenue in the region. The frontiers of the town are delimited by Concession 3 in the Northern region whereas Concession 9 represents the southern border. The population is composed of 70% Franco-ontarians and 30% of other lingual minorities (25% anglophones and 5% Swiss immigrants -  the Gut, Suter, Spuehler and Senn families). This sleepy little town can be accessed by taking exit 35 on the Trans-Canadian Highway 417. It can be said that the proverb of St-Bernardin is " ce n'est pas parce qu'on est petit, qu'on ne peut pas être grand" - "it is not because we are small that we cannot be big".

History of the community

St-Bernardin de Sienne just celebrated its 100th anniversary in the year of 2012. In 1911, the archbishop Mgr Charles Hugh Gauthier of the archdiocese of Ottawa granted the parishioners of the parish St-Bernard de Fournier request to create a new parish that would be closer to them. The new parish was created by annexing 60 families of latter parish to 45 families from the St-Grégoire de Nazianze parish of Vankleek HIll. This new parish was named St-Bernardin de Sienne in honour of its mother parish St-Bernard de Fournier. The parish's patronal birthday is held on May 20th.The construction of the new town church began in 1912 and came to an end in 1914. During the construction of this church, the townspeople attended church in the Dyon General store. The church bell, installed in 1914, was actually the bell modelled in 1858 and destined for the Notre-Dame cathedral of Ottawa. In the fall of 1985, the committees deemed it was high time to repair the tiny town church. It was brought to their intention that the beams were in a sad state. Therefor, on January 22nd 1986, the McNeely Engineering firm deemed that the church had to be destroyed due to its insecure structure (it had been built on a clay soil) and it was closed immediately. After many heated debates, the church was destroyed and a new one reconstructed on the same site. The first mass in the new church was held on November 14th 1987 at 8pm.

Wayside Crosses

There is a wayside cross that can be found at the intersection of Concession 7 and Caledonia Road 22. These crosses are typically made out of wood, metal or stone. They are an object of the past and a part of the religious and francophone cultural heritage. Theses crosses are maintained by the parishioners. This particular one was built in 1948 and reconstructed in 1957 after it was damaged during a two car collision. It was renovated in 2009 and blessed by the current priest Gilles Marcil.

Public Municipal Services

St-Bernardin is home to a church, a community centre that can hold up to four hundred people and oftentimes used for weddings and such other happy celebrations. On the same site there is also a playground, a tennis court, a soccer field, a baseball field as well as a skating rink. The fire department and a winter road grooming garage, belonging to the Nation township, are also situated there. One can also find a hair dresser salon as well as a car garage (Garage JP Lavigne), a bike shop (Leroux Bikeshop), and a convenience store (the convenience store has changed owners many times and was at one point even home to a chinese restaurant). The community used to have a school (which was closed in 2002) now used as a storage room for the Conseil Scolaire District Catholique de l'Est Ontarien. It was also once home to a bank (La Caisse Populaire), a tractor dealership (Reis Farm Equipment), a chipstand, a post office etc.

Community Activties

The community holds many different family activities such as the Winter Carnival.

Pandaléon

Founded in 2009, this alternative rock with a hint of folk band is made up of Frédéric et Jean-Philippe Levac as well as Marc-André Labelle. They have won many prizes and even produced one album so far in the fall of 2011. https://fr-fr.facebook.com/pandaleon.musique

http://www.st-bernardin.ca/fr/view.php?key=1&lang=fr "St-Bernardin", Production de la Société Historique et culturelle de St-Bernardin.