Flight Interrupted

The spark to launch a newsletter in the year of a pandemic would not have taken flame were it not for the patience, fortitude and willingness of editor James Armstrong to ‘structure it forward, ’beyond the interruption. It was no more than few years ago that the Gannaiden sculpture-garden was inaugurated, yet, it feels much longer. It feels like another lifetime. In that other life, the Gannaiden project was flying high on winds of success; when, unexpectedly, the flight got interrupted by Covid 19.

Almost a year after the interruption, on February 7, 2021, I delivered the December 2019-2020 President’s Report to the Gannaiden board of Directors.

Here is a condensed version of the report.

Thank you to the directors for the two-month delay in holding this board meeting. I am grateful. In truth, I needed the month of January to debrief myself on a year that was second to none. It felt like two lifetimes rolled into twelve months. Same sentiment goes for the community outreach program of the Gannaiden organization.

In December 2019, life was as we knew it. By March 2020 life was according to Covid 19. Between December 2019 and March 11, 2020, the Gannaiden community outreach program was flying strong on the wings of a Monarch butterfly; thereafter it took whatever opportunities allowed under government health regulations. On the personal side: for Marcel and I, it seemed that the big world got smaller and our small world got bigger. Lockdown presented certain challenges. Over night I was over-gardened and under-staﬀed. Practices tried. Lessons learned.

During the five-week debriefing period, it was a pleasant to discover the performance of the Gannaiden program was nothing short of stellar! We operated to capacity under Crisis C guidelines and, despite the lockdown interruption from March 11- June 6, thereafter and right up to Chanukah December 10, 2020 we ran activities that were marked by resilience, continuity, discovery and an overall sense of moving forward. Activities may have stalled and readjusted; head counts may have dropped due to the ‘bubble eﬀectʼ, but, the program was never cancelled out! The Gannaiden organization lived up to its Logo: the door is always ajar.

At the beginning of March The Gannaiden Foundation issued its first grant. It came under the Heritage component of the Foundation titled: The History of the Jewish People in Vaudreuil Soulanges. It was earmarked for a series titled: Interacting with History: stories of Jewish families in their neighbourhood. This grant was administered through The Pearson School Board and went to the Soulanges elementary school, a one-room schoolhouse in the Municipality of Saint-Télesphore where the parliamentarian Samuel William Jacobs (1871-1938) attended school. The money is allocated to buy education material as a follow through of a story that Wayne Morrison tells as part of his family lore. “My grandfather John Kenneth Morrison was Samuel William Jacob’s school friend. Their friendship lasted for years, even after Jacobs left the area with his parents to live in Montreal. I graduated from the same elementary school and went on to become a teacher and went back to teach at the school between 2000 and 2006. In our library was a collection of books I remembered as a student. The books had been gifted by Samuel Williams Jacobs. The story is that Samuel Williams Jacobs brought them on a visit he made in the early twentieth century,” said Morrison.

Unidentified Saint-Télesphore school students and teacher early 20th century. Photo courtesy of the Wayne Morrison Collection.

Samuel William “Sam” Jacobs was a Canadian lawyer, a member of parliament and a leader of the Canadian Jewish community. For many years he was the only Jewish MP in the House of Commons Canada. He was first elected from the Montreal riding of George Étienne Cartier in the 1917 Federal election as a Laurier Liberal and remained in parliament as a Liberal MP until his death.

On March 11, 2020, I gave a Gannaiden Sculpture-Garden 101 Conference at Beaconsfield City Hall to an audience of over forty Garden Club members. Our Family of Friends volunteer Felicia Ruzilo assisted. That conference was the second in a series that began in 2019 at the Jerusalem Botanical Garden in Israel. The third conference is scheduled for March 2022 at Montreal West Garden Club.

The summer months were gifted with moments of discovering the neighbourhood and a special award ceremony. All of which are well detailed herein under other headings.

For the third year, in September, Gannaiden participated in ‘Jardin Pour Tous’, an art-garden located at the Municipalité régionale de comté Vaudreuil-Soulanges (MRC-VS) central high school, École Secondaire de la Cité-des-Jeunes in Vaudreuil-Dorion. The project is the brainchild of visual arts specialist teacher, Nancy Lépine. Gannaiden provided bulbs for the students to plant.

Underneath each bulb, students placed a piece of paper on which was written a wish. I like to describe the project as stuﬃng ‘M. Marchandʼ mountain with a code of hope. Marchand was the architect who designed the school and the garden.

In pre-covid times, in June 2019, students visited Gannaiden for a guided garden walk and art talk on garden design and the work of Marcel Braitstein, life story included. During Covid, a video was sent to the school. In October, Marie-Claude Nichols made a declaration on the story of artist Marcel Braitstein in the Québec National Assembly. The event had over 2,200 media views. As Marcel sat in the comfort of home and watched, he remarked “This is remarkable, never has my story enjoyed such a large audience.”

The November 2020 project is written up under Remembering, followed by Let there be Light for December.

Throughout all the above, James Armstrong came aboard as Gannaiden Communications contact, joining the team of Mark Caduc, Director of Communications and his wife Anne Lebeau our translator.

May this newsletter act as a launching pad. May it signal our intent to keep moving forward. The flight towards the light of a brighter tomorrow was interrupted, not cancelled. Families and Friends, Together we can.

Let us toast To Life\L’Chaim
Elaine Steinberg

And now a word from the president...

Flight Interrupted