‘PHAT’ SATURDAY
City celebrates Mardi Gras with annual gala
WOONSOCKET — It was time to dance to the sounds of a fiddler, accordion player, saxophone, guitar and more Saturday night as Woonsocketers celebrated Mardi Gras 2020 with the help of Queen Lori Paul Thuot, King Jace XXVI Dominique Doiron and their court, all assembled in the St. Ann Arts & Center at 84 Cumberland St.
The sold-out Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts event was a happy tribute to Woonsocket’s longtime connection with Mardi Gras and culminated a week that had begun last Sunday at Savini’s Pomodoro Restaurant with the selection of Queen Thuot, her court princesses Tabitha Westerhuis and Ashley Robitaille and the unmasking of the mysterious King Jace as Doiron – St. Ann Cultural & Art Center executive director.
That dual role kept Doiron busy during the evening serving as an emcee with Sharon Charette, Council of the Arts president. He was seen calling up tables to the French Canadian buffet while also managing his official duties of helping Queen Thuot present a special crown to longtime queen contender Amanda Girard, and announcing a special dance for the Council’s longest serving volunteer Clara L’Heureux.
Dave Richards, who, with his wife, Denise, handles most of the secretive movements of King Jace during his reign, described Doiron as simply “amazing,” as the King this year.
“He brought so much energy to the roll of King Jace,” Richards said at Mardi Gras.
“As a former King Jace I can tell you the guy in the costume is so very careful to keep the secret and we are often rather un-animated. Not Dominique,” Richards said.
“He was the most expressive of the Kings I have known.”
Charette pronounced Mardi Gras a success as the cajun, zydeco, blues and soul band, The Squeezebox Stompers, got the revelers up on their feet in the downstairs event center up and dancing.
“It went very, very well, we have a full house,” Charette said while noting about 250 people had come to enjoy Mardi Gras.
This year’s Queen and King were “wonderful,” as were the princesses who all did their part in celebrating Mardi Gras.
Charette also had special praise for the many volunteers of the Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts who had put in many long hours of preparation work in advance of the party and then took up their places in the serving line for the buffet and at the tables selling raffle tickets as part of the night’s Council of the Arts fundraising.
“The volunteers have been working so hard for such a long time,” Charette said.
“They donated all the things we had for the raffle baskets and they worked right up to the last minute,” she noted.
“They are why everything has gone off so perfectly,” Charette said.
Mardi Gras and the Queen competition are the Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts’ biggest fundraiser and helps the organization to award college scholarships and put on its other events during the course of the year.
While nowhere near as big as the annual celebration French settlers inspired in New Orleans, Louisiana, that will wrap up with Fat Tuesday next week, the local Mardi Gras does have plenty of history of its own.
The first local festival was held in 1954 and grew into an event marked with multiple dinner balls and a very large parade with major floats passing down the heavily utilized Main Street business district during its run in the 1950s.
The festival went on hiatus as winters turned colder but was then revived in 1995 by the Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts, albeit on a smaller scale, and has been held every year since.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, whose husband Ed Hunt is a former King Jace, sent her greetings in French “Laissez les bon temps rouler!” along with others such as Navigant Credit Union, Milford Federal, Hunter Insurance Inc., Chellos Hometown Bar & Grill, the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, Boucher Real Estate, the Rotary Club of Woonsocket and more in the evening’s sponsor book.
More information on the Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts upcoming events can be found at www.nrica.org.