Francophone organizer enjoyed growing awareness of French culture in Moose Jaw
The community director for Moose Jaw’s Francophone organization is leaving after two years in the role but knows she contributed to a greater awareness of French culture in that brief time.
Chantal Amstad’s last day with the Association communautaire fransaskoise de Moose Jaw (ACFMJ) was Aug. 29. She was busy cleaning her desk when the Moose Jaw Express visited the office, located in École Ducharme School on Ominica Street.
“I feel like more people know about the existence of the French community. I think that’s really awesome. So our visibility has increased in the last (few) years,” she laughed. “More and more people … (are) more curious about what we do because they like what we’ve done.”
For example, the ACFMJ has organized a Zombie Run the last three years. Amstad wasn’t around for the first run but was on hand during the second event, which was not well promoted. However, during the third year, more people approached her asking when it would happen.
She also increased awareness of the annual Tintamarre Francophone street festival and started an annual ice fishing tournament. “People were kind of getting used to our presence and that was nice to see,” she laughed.
One of Amstad’s favourite memories was during the last day of summer camp. She asked one boy what he liked most about the camp, but he was unsure since he said he liked everything. This brightened her day.
Amstad was both excited and sad to leave her role as community director. She was excited about what comes next in her career, but also sad since she had a great experience working with the Francophone organization and came to know many people who had the well-being of the community at heart.
“They made my experience great. I am not happy to leave, but I had a great experience,” she added.
During her two years working in Moose Jaw, Amstad lived in Regina and commuted every day. However, that became a grind, especially since she was losing personal time to socialize after work. She decided she wanted a job that would push her in a different way.
Amstad found a job working at École Monseigneur de Laval in Regina as an Animatrice culturelle et sportive — essentially, a co-ordinator of cultural and sports activities — where she will plan events, be more involved in sports, and help the teachers.
“I will be working with kids,” she laughed. “That will push me.”
As the ACFMJ community director, Amstad was more than simply a desk jockey — she did everything, she explained with a laugh. She planned, created and promoted community events, represented the French community at events, and looked for opportunities to create partnerships to endorse French more often.
“I met a lot of great people — both in the French and English community — which was really awesome,” Amstad continued. “That opened my eyes to a lot of things.” Amstad is originally from Quebec — her background is a Swiss-German mix — and didn’t know much about French minority communities in Canada before moving to Regina three years ago. When she began working in Moose Jaw two years ago, she discovered some residents still struggled to access services in French. She also learned how important it was for some residents to defend access to a French school so they could keep alive their culture.
She thought most Canadians disliked French-speaking people when she left Quebec, but learned the opposite was true. Many people were open-minded and willing to work with her while providing a French twist to their events. Amstad left Quebec since she wanted to learn more about “the other culture of Canada” and its differences. She wanted to get over the negative ideas she had learned at home about English Canada and see if people could work together. She discovered with delight that was possible during her three years in Saskatchewan.