WOODSTOCK, P.E.I. — This is a busy week for Dennis Gallant.
When he is not responding to calls from people looking for harvester parts and used tractors, the Bloomfield resident is helping to coordinate two major events: he’s host to the Doiron family’s 30th-anniversary family reunion and coordinator of the St. Anthony’s Parish Picnic.
Having the two events fall on the same weekend is no accident. His mother, Helen (Doiron) Gallant and her brothers and sisters deliberately planned the first reunion around the parish picnic, and the two events have co-existed ever since.
All nine of the Doiron brothers and sisters who started the reunions are now deceased but their nieces and nephews have carried on with the tradition.
Usually, anywhere from 65 to 100 Doiron descendants gather for the annual reunions, but Gallant said 160 descendants have booked their summer vacation around the 30th-anniversary reunion.
Although several cousins have already gathered for informal reunions, the formal schedule gets rolling Friday with Dennis and Mary Gallant serving as reunion hosts. There will be barbecues and sharing tables all weekend, a Friday golf tournament, Saturday car rally and 108 of the relatives are booked for the Stompin’ Tom dinner theatre in Skinners Pond Friday night.
Rolls into Sunday
Typically, the reunions end with a hayride from the Gallants to either O’Leary Corner Tim Hortons or the Dairy Royal on Saturday evening.
But, for many, the reunion rolls over into the St. Anthony’s Parish Picnic on Sunday.
“There will be a lot of them stick around for the picnic; that’s why we have it the day before the picnic every year,” Gallant said. “That way, if they want to see some of the people they went to school with, or whatever, they will probably be at the picnic.”
While the Doiron family reunion is the big one, planning committee member Rita Arsenault said several families hold informal reunions at the same time, turning the picnic - an almost yearly staple in the parish since 1872 - into a homecoming event of sorts.
The picnic, this Sunday, Aug. 4, starts with an outdoor Mass in the cemetery at 11 a.m. Games booths, yard sale, bingo, and entertainment all get underway on the church grounds right after the Mass and continues until 6 p.m. Hot roast beef dinners will be served in the parish hall all afternoon. There will also be lotteries, hayrides and plenty of opportunities to catch up with old friends.
Gallant estimates about 150 parishioners, former parishioners, and other volunteers helped stage the picnic program. Last year the picnic, including proceeds from a cake auction, cleared $27,000 for the parish. One cake alone brought in $2,700.
