The Town of Brome Lake launched its first financial aide program that encourages citizens to purchase sustainable hygiene products to divert the amount of waste going into the Brome-Missisquoi landfill, following in the steps of other Eastern Township’s municipalities such as Cowansville, Dunham, Sherbrooke, and Magog.

Oriana Familiar, Environmental Management Service Coordinator for the regional county municipality (RCM) and local development centre (LDC) of Brome-Missisquoi, said that as the life expectancy of the Brome-Missisquoi landfill diminishes, with an estimated 30 years left until it is no longer useable, these types of programs are not only a step in the right direction but necessary.

Students from Campus Brome-Missisquoi’s (CBM) Adult Education centre are raising funds to update the centre’s kitchen area in order to offer its breakfast program once again.

Over the last few years, the centre has had its own breakfast club that provides low cost breakfast for students and staff. For those students that participate in the breakfast club, it also provides them with the opportunity to learn important life skills related to food security as they enter adulthood. However, the centre was forced to put the breakfast club on hold because it needed to bring the kitchen up to code.

A new festival is happening in Brome that will bring outdoor enthusiasts together around various activities, workshops, and local entertainment over the Victoria Day weekend.

The first-ever edition of the Halte Festival is co-produced by Brome Fair - which puts on the largest agricultural fair in Quebec every Labor Day weekend - and event planning company Faire-Valoir.

This week is Canadian Mental Health's Association's National Mental Health Week. Centre l'Élan and Dunham House are two local organizations which have experienced an increase in demand for their services over the last couple of years as the pandemic created a shift in the state of people's mental health. They say it's a challenge to access alternative mental health resources in the Eastern Townships outside of the public healthcare system , and the situation needs to be addressed.

Citizens group Protection Mont-Gale and conservation organization Appalachian Corridor have succeeded in protecting 34.7 acres of a high ecological value forest in Bromont’s Mont Gale area.

With the support of their financial partners and a major local fundraising campaign, Protection Mont-Gale and Appalachian Corridor raised over $3 million to bring the project to life. This piece of land is now protected in perpetuity and it marks one of the last major conservation efforts needed to preserve Mont Gale.

The Town of Sutton has a busy agenda with two major announcements to address the needs of its citizens.

Earlier this week the municipality launched a participatory budget of $50,000, a first for Sutton. The participatory budget was drafted by the Quality of Life Consultative Committee - made up of volunteers and two elected officials - and it provides Sutton residents of all ages with the opportunity to make decisions about the municipal budget by proposing projects that they would like to see happen in their community.

The Yamaska Valley Optimist Club (YVOC) has two fundraisers planned in May to raise money in support of its mission to help the youth of Brome-Missisquoi.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, the non-profit organization will be selling bouquets of ten multi-coloured tulips from Brome Lake-based florist Fleurissima. The deadline to submit an order is May 8.

The YVOC's second fundraiser is an English-style tea luncheon and a fashion show at the community centre in Knowlton on May 7 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Local stores will have their clothes on display and Brome Lake fashion designer Melissa Pratte will show off her creations.

The Canadian Party of Quebec Eastern Townships Regional Association held its first public event in Bondville on Sunday to inform Townshippers on Bill 96 and its potential impacts on the daily lives of Quebecers as certain elements of the bill are expected to take effect on June 1, 2023. Guest speakers Colin Standish, leader for the (CaPQ), and Myrtis Fossey, former CaPQ candidate and clinical psychologist, spoke with attendees about Quebec’s new language law and the impact it will have on health services.

As of June 1, Bill 96, which makes a number of changes to the Charter of the French Language, will require Quebecers to have an English-language eligibility certificate in order to receive services from government institutions in English, including hospitals. These certificates will only be provided to individuals that received their primary and secondary education in English in Canada.

L’Éspace Old Mill is a historic landmark in Stanbridge East dating back to 1849. Originally known as the Cecil House, it served as an inn for people passing through the area. Since its construction, its had its famous bar called the Old Mill due to it being located right next door to the old grist mill along the Pike River, now the home of the Missisquoi Museum.

Jean-Martin Fortier, a market gardener and owner of Les Jardins de la Grelinette in Stanbridge East, purchased Éspace Old Mill about a year ago from former Member of Parliament for Brome-Missisquoi Denis Paradis with a new vision for the site.

Community groups, organizations, institutions, and other bodies across Canada are celebrating the volunteers that are integral to helping them carry out the work in their communities in honour of National Volunteer Week, taking place from April 16 to April 22.

Volunteer Canada, a charity that provides national leadership and expertise on volunteerism to increase volunteer participation, has made this year’s theme “Volunteering Weaves Us Together.” According to the Volunteer Canada website, the theme is meant to symbolize the important role that volunteering has in keeping communities strong and vibrant through collective action.

The Marché des Artisanats Dunham is celebrating its fifth anniversary this Saturday, April 22, with a community event.

Michilynn Dubeau started the arts and crafts market when she moved back to the area from Alberta. She joined the Women's Institute where she quickly noticed the inconvenience that many women had in lugging their boxes of art, crafts, and products back and forth to the different markets.

Mères au front is a movement in Quebec, and in certain other provinces in Canada with a francophone presence, made up of mothers, grandmothers, and their allies with a mission to protect future generations from the impacts of climate change and to ensure a better future for children. 

Various regions and municipalities across Quebec have a Mères au front group that carry out or support projects and initiatives in their communities related to the environment and biodiversity, including the Eastern Townships. These groups include Les Mères au front et leurs allié.e.s des Cantons de l’Est, Mères au front Estrie, and Mères au front Memphrémagog. 

The Knowlton Players is putting on The Sound of Music at Theatre Lac-Brome with the first performance scheduled for May 5. 

The Sound of Music is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is inspired by the family biography of Maria Augusta von Trapp.

Lucy Hoblyn, owner of Brome Lake Books and one of the pioneers of the Knowlton Players, discovered The Sound of Music when she first moved to Canada as child after picking out the album from a neighbour’s garage sale, and it quickly grew on her. 

The Brome-Missisquoi Perkins Foundation (BMP Foundation) announced the launch of a new fundraising event, “Olympiades pour la santé,” at a press conference yesterday in collaboration with Sutton School (ETSB and Val-des-Cerfs), École de la Clé-des-Champs in Dunham, and Saint-François-d’Assise in Frelighsburg.

On June 9, students will head down to Goyette-Hill Park in Sutton for a day of sports and recreational activities to highlight the importance of physical activity and developing healthy habits. Physical education teachers from each school and specialists in various sports will be on site to help organize the activities.

The Eastern Townships School Board’s (ETSB) annual music festival is officially back and marking its 10th edition. This year’s festival is titled “ETSB United in Music” and it’s running under the theme of music from around the world.

The music festival has been on hold for the last couple of years, but 10 ETSB schools, around 250 students in total, are coming together to fill the Massey-Vanier High School (MVHS) auditorium with music on April 24. The event will be starting at noon and it is free of charge to the general public.

A new art gallery has replaced the former antique store on Knowlton Road. 

After completing some renovations, the Art Lab art gallery celebrated its official opening over the Easter weekend on April 8. The art gallery serves as an extension of art studio Art Lab 341 and it is meant to show off the work of its artists and other artists in the Eastern Townships. 

Dunham House is hosting an open house event on April 22 to introduce the facility and its treatment program to mental health and addiction professionals.

Dunham House is a residential treatment centre for individuals 18 years and older suffering from mental health disorders and concurrent disorders, particularly substance use addiction. Dunham House is geared towards the English-speaking community of the Eastern Townships and Quebec. According to its website, Dunham House is the only residential facility of its kind in the province that operates in English.

In the spring of 2022, the Town of Brome Lake attempted to adopt by-law 596-12, a by-law that would give the municipality more control over short-term rentals (30 days or less) by implementing certain criteria and restrictions that short-term rental homeowners and their guests would be expected to follow. A registry was held on May 27 and 28 that provided citizens with the opportunity to vote against the bylaw. Only 218 signatures were needed to determine how the municipality was going to move forward, but over 300 signatures were collected.

Rather than go to a referendum, the municipality decided to form a committee made up of Brome Lake citizens for and against by-law 596-12, some town staff, and elected officials to try and come up with a new by-law. While the committee didn’t reach a full consensus, all parties emphasized that the town needed to assert more control when dealing with nuisance and ensuring that those renting out their property abide by short-term rental regulations.

A new series of talks is coming to Georgeville at the Murray Community Centre. Starting April 19, the Memphré Lecture Series will see guest speakers cover a variety of topics and it invites all Townshippers to discover something new.

The lecture series originally took place in Newport, Vermont, but when the pandemic hit they were cancelled due to the organizing committee being mostly made up of Canadian citizens.

Disappointed that the lecture series has yet to pick back up again in Newport, some of the organizers decided to start a series on this side of the border.

The Townships Sun, a non-profit community magazine that serves the English-speaking community of the Eastern Townships, officially wrapped up its new Townships Young Voices project with an awards ceremony held on March 26.

The Townships Young Voices project was about encouraging youth between 12 and 29 years old to write poetry, fiction, non-fiction, or to take photographs, or create a piece of artwork to be published in The Townships Sun and to win awards.