VOLUNTEER. A few times a week, a dozen volunteers meet on the fourth floor of the Marie-Fitzbach cultural center, in the premises of the Sartigan Historical Society (SHS), to discuss everything and nothing, but above all to leave their mark on the History of Saint George.
Since 1992, the SHS has given itself the mission of protecting, interpreting, enhancing and disseminating the heritage of Saint-Georges and its surroundings. It offers, among other things, research, digitization and classification services for various documents. These are then made available, under certain constraints, to the public.
“The SHS wants to be the living memory of local history for a long time to come. The saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. We can therefore say, with the number of photos and journalistic archives that we have, that we still have a lot to tell,” says Bastien Lapierre, president of the SHS.
The SHS also takes care of the maintenance of the Pozer cemetery and works regularly in complementarity with the city of Saint-Georges by ensuring the archiving of its documents. She also has in her possession a few artifacts from the Musée de l’entrepreneurship beauceron and the collection Édouard Lacroix – His life in painting.
The importance of volunteers
According to Mr. Lapierre, the role of volunteers is essential to the success of the objectives of the SHS. Even if it is only a few hours a week, without them, the history of Saint-Georges could not be so carefully preserved and explained to the future generation.
“Each volunteer works according to their knowledge. I have people here who are able to recognize places, but also people, in photos that are decades old. We therefore try to make use of everyone’s knowledge for the benefit of the generation of tomorrow,” he says.
Among the volunteers still in place are Nicole Bisson, who greatly assisted in the rigorous classification of documents, Yvon Thibodeau, one of the oldest volunteers still active, and Pierre Morin, author of the book Chronicles of Saint-Georges in photos. It contains more than 1000 archival photos dating from 1879 to today and they are all accompanied by an explanatory text.
“I love everything I do here. The things that I am given to do do not tire me physically, but it allows me to work my brain. You meet beautiful people, it’s also a great social activity […] We are a beautiful little family,” explain Louisette Gilbert Fouquet and Jacynthe Bolduc, two volunteers who have been there for more or less five years.
Translating the history of tomorrow
In the coming years, there will be many challenges for the SHS. In addition to having to adapt to new ways of capturing daily life, she will have to ensure the sustainability of the team of volunteers in place when there are fewer and fewer people who are ready to s be involved on a voluntary basis as do those of the SHS according to Mr. Lapierre.
“People still bring us boxes of photos, but will that still be the case in five years? Some people may bring us a cell phone or a USB key. The management of photos will certainly be very different. We will have to be ready to respond to this request when the time comes,” he said.
The SHS is constantly looking for volunteers. To become a volunteer or donate photos, it is also preferable, according to the president, to make an appointment with the SHS. The latter will be able to better guide visitors in their requests. For more information, visit shsartigan.com/en/.
