The Town of Brome Lake is bringing back its Polar Beach Party event for the first time since 2020.

The Polar Beach Party is coordinated by the department of leisure, tourism, culture, and community life for the Town of Brome Lake. In its fifth edition, the event is meant to bring people together around a variety of activities and sports to celebrate the winter season.

The Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Foundation (BMP Foundation) is celebrating its 30th anniversary by announcing a new look and logo.

The BMP Foundation came together in 1993 when there was a demand for philanthropy to ensure the continuous upgrade of health care services in Brome-Missisquoi.

The Mansonville Youth Centre - Missisquoi Nord coordinates activities and programs for youth in the municipality of Potton, but it also opens up its space to two important programs: the Ken Jones Centre Respite Program and the CIUSSSE/CHUS Mansonville Day Centre.

The Ken Jones Centre Respite Program is designed to give families and/or caregivers of an adult living with an intellectual and/or physical disability a day of respite. The program is offered every Thursday and it provides clientele with the opportunity to socialize with one another and to take part in different activities.

An increase in inflation rates is being witnessed across the globe and the impacts have been felt by many.

Nicolas Gaudette is the owner of Selby Farm, a small pastured pig operation in Dunham, alongside his wife Laurence Levasseur. He is also a member of the Syndicat de l'UPA Brome-Missisquoi, a local union that represents farmers in the region.

He speaks on the challenges Selby Farm is facing as a result of inflation and how the situation has become a concern for farmers across the region.

In August of last year, the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi and its Environmental Management Department, in collaboration with the Régie intermunicipale de gestion des matières résiduelles de Brome-Missisquoi, launched a project at the regional Ecocentre in Cowansville to create a new “reuse space.”

With a boom in construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) projects throughout the pandemic, the reuse space is meant to divert the mass amount of CRD material that is good condition from the landfill to give it a second life.

The Auberge Lakeview Inn, considered an historical building, was built in 1874 by a group of loyalist settlers.

Then known as Lake View House Hotel, it welcomed people travelling by stagecoach, and then eventually by train with the arrival of the railroad. It was around this time that the inn quickly grew popular.

Best known for bringing its guests on a trip back in time, the Lakeview Inn has preserved its history and heritage that is reminiscent of the Victorian era. Its presence continues to take centre stage in the heart of Knowlton.

The Town of Sutton officially presented its new “Family and Seniors Policy,” and the action plan for such policy, to the public at a meeting on Feb. 9.

The policy is the result of the work carried out by a steering committee headed by councillor Lynda Graham, elected official responsible for family and seniors’ issues, over the last year.

Last year, a series of consultations were held with certain focus groups and citizens were also encouraged to take part in a survey to give their input as to what they wanted to see in their community.

The Lac-Brome Museum is officially a recipient of a $472, 320 grant from the Ministry of Culture and Communications.

The financial assistance is granted under the Operating Assistance for Museum Institutions (PAFIM) program and it will be dispersed over a three year period.

The Missisquoi Museum, located in Stanbridge East, is also benefitting from the PAFIM program with a grant totalling $138, 980.

The Rucher Boltonnois, located in Bolton-Est, is a social-economic non-profit organization that has been bringing citizens together around different community projects for the past five years.

The Rucher is born out of the “I adopt a bee hive” project started by town councillor and president of the organization Alain Déry, with the financial support of the municipality, in 2017.

The Centre Action Bénévole Cowansville’s (CAB Cowansville) story begins in 1973 at the kitchen table of Mrs. Anna Goëttel, an active member of the community and a widow with five children.

It was at this very table, which served as her office for a period of time, that Goëttel started to create the non-profit organization.

The 33rd annual Suicide Prevention Week is being recognized this week. This year’s campaign runs under the theme “Prevention is Better Than Death” to highlight the importance of prevention and to encourage people to talk about about suicide despite any fears or discomfort.

There are two community organizations in the Eastern Townships that provide suicide prevention services: Sherbrooke based organization the JEVI Suicide Prevention Center and Granby based organization the Centre de prévention du suicide de la Haute-Yamaska.

The Musée des communications et d’histoire de Sutton has launched a call for projects for its 2024 exhibition summer exhibition “Archives for the Future.”

In collaboration with Héritage Sutton, the museum is calling on photographers and artists across Brome-Missisquoi to snap quality photographs of Sutton (including Abercorn) that will serve as archives for future generations

The Town of Brome Lake has announced its new measures to control short-term rentals (31 days or less); a result of a series of discussions held over there last few months between a 12-member committee.

The committee was formed last year after the town presented Bylaw 596-12, a bylaw to regulate short-term rentals in the municipality, to Brome Lake citizens. A registry was held at the end of May that garnered around 380 signatures against the bylaw.

The federal Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food studies bills, government activities and expenditures, and issues related to Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry.

According to Kody Blois, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, said the role of the committee, like most other parliamentary committees, is to “uphold the government to account, but also to hear from witnesses and different stakeholders, and be able to provide recommendations and reports back to the government.”

In 1961, a group of residents came together to sound the alarms on the state of Brome Lake (water body), considered the “crown jewel” of the Brome Lake municipality. At the time, the lake was facing frequent cyanobacteria outbreaks.

Together, these residents established the Brome Lake Conservation Association to take action. The association was one of the first organizations dedicated to lake protection in Quebec and was created before the Ministry of Environment.

The Brome-Missisquoi Caregiver Support Group (BMCSG) was created in 1996 after the CLSC La Pommeraie consulted the population that fell within its health administrative region.

The consultation revealed that there was a need of more support for caregivers in the region. The BMCSG has been offering support services to caregivers throughout the Brome-Missisquoi territory ever since.

TransEstrie is a community organization that supports, accompanies and represents trans, non-binary, and questioning people in the Eastern Townships.

Based in Sherbrooke, TransEstrie was born out of the “Groupe d’action trans de l’Université de Sherbrooke” founded by a group of trans students at the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) in 2016.

The Town of Sutton adopted its 2023 budget at a special meeting held on Dec. 14 to a majority council vote. The budget was presented to the public at the town council meeting held on Jan. 18.

This year's budget amounts to $14,706,731; a budget that was deemed necessary due to increases in operational costs, including the salaries of town employees, and inflation rates.

Pettes Memorial Library was built and donated to Brome Township by Narcissa Farrand Pettes in memory of her late husband and federal Member of Parliament Nathaniel Pettes.

It became the first free public library in Quebec following its foundation with an act of Parliament in 1894; it remains a free library to this day.

Annab Aubin-Thuot describes herself as the “class clown.” She is also a trained musician with a degree in literature. But after partaking in a clown workshop in Bas-Saint-Laurent around 10 years ago, Aubin-Thuot found her passion in the art form.

Combining her sense of humour and her love for poetry and music with body language, Aubin-Thuot found a new sense of freedom in clowns; a sense of freedom she wanted to share with others.