Alain Poirier named interim director of public health
Health and Social Services Minister Danielle Mccann today announced the appointment of Alain Poirier as Director of the Eastern Townships’ Public Health Department on Tuesday. Poirier’s new position comes into effect on September 9 on an interim basis, for a period of one year, and follows the departure of Dr. Melissa Genereux from the role earlier in the summer.
"Mr. Poirier has acquired, during his career, a very great experience in the field of public health,” said Mccann. “His remarkable commitment to promoting health among Quebecers is also an undeniable asset that the people of Estrie can greatly benefit from. I thank him for accepting these interim duties, a challenge he will, I am sure, be successful in with the collaboration of the teams under his responsibility within the CIUSSS."
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Last week the Write Here, Write Now project, an initiative of the Townshippers Association that offered creative writing workshops across the region over the course of the last year, launched its ebook, entitled “Our Stories 2.0“at the Uplands. According to
Jan Draper, who coordinated the project along with Melanie Cutting, some 40 people turned out for the launch, which saw nine different contributors share their works of poetry, memoir, and other writings.
“I think everybody really enjoyed themselves,” Draper said, noting that although a few of people who submitted to the collection write professionally, the majority are quite new to the idea of a book launch. “Mostly they’re just people who like to write,” she added.
Draper explained that the Write Here, Write Now project came about as a follow-up to the “our stories” e-book
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that Townshippers created in the context of Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation in 2017. That project, the organizer said, ended up being so popular that a print edition of the book was made and sold in addition to the planned digital publication.
Wanting to keep the momentum of that writing energy going, Draper said that the Write Here, Write Now project was created with the idea of fostering sustainable writing workshops throughout the Eastern Townships that focus on different styles and techniques for writing including things like poetry, nature writing, and memoir.
“The workshops were a major component,” she said, explaining that as the project moves on to another year, the organizing team is looking at running workshops not just on writing, but also on leading writing workshops so that some of those who have been coming as participants can take on more of a leadership role. In addition to spreading out the workload, the organizer shared the hope that encouraging more writers to start break-off groups would bring in more participants for future publications.
Draper also expressed excitement that several of the people who submitted to the ebook project also took it upon themselves to submit to other local publications such as The Townships Sun