Successful Initiatives 173

Professor J.-Henri Blanchard was one of the founders and one of the most ardent supporters of the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society. In a speech to his colleagues attending the 1920 convention, he spoke very optimistically about the benefits the Society could bring:

With the moral support and the pecuniary help of all our friends, we soon expect to see numerous priests, doctors, lawyers and other Acadian profession- als graduate from colleges and universities and champion our religion, our race and our rights. The Society will therefore have to be largely instrumental in bringing closer the day of complete rehabilitation of the little Acadian group on the Island. (TR)”?

Although the immediate objective was to collect money for the education of young Acadians, the overall goal of the Society was to see French and Acadian life flourish on Prince Edward Island”.

Thanks to the work of its leaders, recruited amongst the clergy and the more educated Acadian laymen, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society succeeded in collecting enough money to be able to award several scholarships each year. Funds were obtained from private indi- viduals, collections and evening recreational activities organized by the directors of the Society”*. In Charlottetown, for example, an even- ing of card games was organized to help pay for the studies of a young man from Rustico who planned to enter the priesthood’’.

An important event took place in 1937 that was to have a pro- found effect on the Society and its activities. It was in that year that the second Convention for the French Language in Canada was held in Quebec City. Professor Blanchard was invited to speak about the status of French in his native province. In a well prepared lecture, he described the precarious state of French life and education on the Island, emphasizing the scarcity of professionals amongst Acadians, be they doctors, lawyers, priests, teachers or civil servants. He also stressed that the Island community lacked the means for financing post-secondary studies for its young people:

We do, of course, have the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society which collects some monies to pay for the higher education of two students. But this is so little, given the dangers that threaten us from all sides. If we wish to train the required leaders without whom we, as a French-language group, shall surely disappear, then we must act as speedily as possible; otherwise it will be too late. (TR)*°