New Acadian Business Hall of Fame and promotional video launched


WELLINGTON – April 21, 2020 –
The Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI (CCAFLIPE) has officially unveiled its brand-new Acadian and Francophone Business Hall of Fame of PEI, which exists in both the physical and virtual worlds. The Chamber is also launching a short video produced to promote the Hall of Fame.

Mounted to honor pillars of the Island’s entrepreneurial community, the Acadian Business Hall of Fame is installed on a wall in the J.-Léonce Bernard Board Room at the Wellington Rural Action Centre. In the middle of the display is the Hall of Fame’s beautiful tricolored and starred logo depicting an Acadian fountain of entrepreneurial wisdom, the CCAFLIPE logo as well as the logo of the Hall of Fame’s permanent sponsor, the Évangéline-Central Credit Union. All around the logo are plaques with the photo, name and business of each of the 17 people (from 16 businesses) who will be inducted at the next Acadian Entrepreneurs’ Gala.

The virtual (or online) version of the Hall of Fame, which includes the video along with photos and biographies of the 17 inductees, can be found at www.rdeeipe.net/temple/. Both the virtual Hall and the video are available in French only.

A brief unveiling ceremony for the Hall of Fame was held March 2 to provide an opportunity to snap photos and to film video footage. These were to be made public during the Gala, which was slated for March 14. Because of the restrictions on public gatherings that were imposed by the province, the Gala has been pushed back to a later date. The Hall of Fame was therefore never launched.

WHY A HALL OF FAME?

Chamber board member Martin Marcoux, who proposed the Hall of Fame, explains why the CCAFLIPE wanted to honor these businesspeople by inducting them into the Hall.

« We have seen them striving in their businesses for many years and we have seen the wonderful fruits of their labor. We’ve honored all of them in past editions of our Gala with our Distinguished Entrepreneur Award – a lifetime achievement-type of recognition,” he explains. “Or RDÉE Canada had honored them with national Lauriers de la PME awards over the years. But we wanted to find a way to recognize their many contributions on a permanent basis. We therefore thought that a Hall of Fame would be an excellent way of doing that, » he explained.

On their individual plaques, the Chamber inscribed the year they received their original award.
The heart-felt video that was produced gives organizers, the sponsor and two inductee representatives an opportunity to comment on the value of such an initiative. The video was produced by Jean Lavergne from DigiFilm média-Presse of Summerside.

INDUCTEES

The entrepreneur inductees are :

2004 – Alphonse Arsenault, Wellington Construction, Abram-Village (deceased)
2004 – René Maddix, Maddix Construction, Urbainville (deceased)
2005 – Adélard Gallant, fisherman/lobbyist/volunteer, Cape Egmont (deceased)
2006 – Frank Legault, PEI Pest Control, Charlottetown
2008 – Tilmon Arsenault, Cape Egmont Enterprises (deceased)
2008 – Léo S. Arsenault, Lane Farm, Abram-Village (deceased)
2010 – Ivan Arsenault, Ivan’s Garage, Wellington
2011 – Richard Bernard, Eye Care Optical, Summerside (deceased)
2012 – Alyre Arsenault, AJL Contractors Ltd, St. Philippe (deceased)
2013 – Réjeanne Arsenault, The Bottle Houses, Cape Egmont
2014 – Henri and Gloria Gallant, HMS Office Supplies, Summerside
2015 – Julien Arsenault, Sanford-Arsenault Farm, Mont-Carmel
2016 – Italo Marzari, Sirenella Ristorante, Charlottetown
2017 – Roger Arsenault, The Co-operators, Wellington
2018 – Jeannette Arsenault, Cavendish Figurines/Shop & Play, Borden-Carleton
2019 – Ray Brow, Britannia Corporation/Überloo International, Georgetown Royalty
2020 – Gérard and Marcel Arsenault, The Branch Manager/Deva Forestry, Summerside-Abram-Village.

The Chamber expects to add the name of at least one more businessperson per year.

As a secondary sponsor of the Hall of Fame, the Baie Acadienne Development Corporation took on the responsibility of providing the permanent space for the Hall of Fame and for mounting the wall display.

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PHOTO: During a brief unveiling ceremony of the Acadian and Francophone Business Hall of Fame of PEI at the Rural Action Centre in Wellington March 2, from left, are Paulette Richard (daughter of deceased inductee for 2005, Adélard Gallant), Pierre Gallant, CCAFLIPE spokesperson, Alfred Arsenault, general manager of the Évangéline-Central Credit Union (permanent sponsor of the wall), and Roger Arsenault, inductee for 2017.

 

 

For more information :

Raymond J. Arsenault
Coordinator
Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI
902-960-1285
raymond@rdeeipe.org