Successful Initiatives 177 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     Héléne Doiron-Gallant with her pupils at the Duvar School in 1938. 
     
     Oscar and Héléne Gallant Collection. 
     
    
   
   
    
     clean up the school and decorate the schoolyard by planting flowers 
     
     and trees. 
     
    

    
     After the Women’s Institutes were organized in 1913, taxpayers 
     
     took an even greater interest in their schools. One of the main concerns 
     
     of these women’s circles, founded under the auspices of the Depart- 
     
     ment of Agriculture, was to improve the school districts. The women 
     
     organized benefits to pay for school equipment and maintenance. 
     
     They also supervised the sanitary conditions in schools. In 1916, for 
     
     example, the Women’s Institute in Miscouche bought a new 
     
     blackboard, a teacher’s desk, a fountain and cups for all the students 
     
     in the public school’®. Over the years, the Institutes became popular 
     
     in many of the Acadian school districts. The school inspector often 
     
     encouraged women to form them. 
     
    

    
     There were several important events during the school year that