Sarah Girouard
42 years old, general manager of Quartier Artisan
“If I am here, it is because of the tragedy and the pandemic. It’s terrible to say it, but that’s it. And it’s not because Sarah Girouard is fueled by misfortune that this Montrealer found herself moving to Lac-Mégantic in 2020. Quite the opposite. “For me, it was a universe of opportunities to be able to rebuild with a project as promising as Quartier Artisan”, explains the one who became, in 2018, the general manager of this organization which supports the development of craft businesses in the region. . “It’s a privilege to be able to breathe new life into it. »
Well rooted in the metropolis, Sarah Girouard started working from home, which this position allowed her to do. “I still needed the excitement of the city, until the pandemic came along and called it all into question. This is how this mother of a grown-up daughter who had never set foot in Lac-Mégantic set her sights on the house of her dreams, within walking distance of the building where Quartier Artisan now has a storefront in Fatima. “I arrived, I found myself a dog and I wanted to live to the rhythm of nature,” she says. “At the rate I was working before, I might have burned myself, but here, I have a balance of life. »
For her, Mégantic, which already had a natural cultural imprint, was ripe to welcome such an initiative. “Unlike other projects, we don’t arrive with our big clogs. We did not pose as opportunists. We are more on a human scale, ”she underlines, saying that she is aware of the reluctance that some people may have. “A lot of people are going to still have a lot of bitterness, and I’m trying not to let that get to me. »
The one who cultivates a certain candor and a positive vision of things does not see much harm in “making things beautiful”. “Artisans are generous and endearing people, who have the ability to bring a little balm. It’s part of why I’m here. »
Francois St-Pierre
29 years old, marketing manager at Attraction
François St-Pierre was among the first people to start a business on the Papineau promenade, a vacant lot where merchants were transferred in the months following the tragedy. His parents, originally from Mégantic and who had recently returned there, wanted to go on vacation. “My dad had trouble finding a bathing suit,” he says.
Barely 18 years old, the young man with an entrepreneurial spirit was studying fashion marketing in Montreal. He saw an opportunity to set up a men’s clothing store, with the support of his parents.
At the time, the necessary displacement of traders who had lost their premises created tensions. “There were people attached to the old city center who said that [la promenade Papineau], it was cold, it was like the DIX30,” he recalls. “I think there was still a good synergy of traders. Everyone had something to build or rebuild. »
Lac-Mégantic was eyeing this young man who had grown up in Granby and spent his summers at the Baie-des-Sables campground. But the time had not come, and he closed shop after two years of activity, to set sail for Montreal.
In 2019, he returned through the front door with his wife, thanks to an exploratory stay with Place aux jeunes en region, an organization that attracts 18-35 year olds. “I knew the area, but I wanted to make friends, to make sure that I came back for my quality of life and that I wasn’t the only one going through this,” explains François St-Pierre. He was then introduced to the directors of Attraction, a clothing manufacturer in Lac-Drolet. He is now the marketing manager.
“I had often come to Mégantic as a tourist and I found it a bit sad. It was the same restaurants for a long time, the same bars, the same shops, ”he notes. The tragedy was a trigger, according to him. “Indirectly, it stimulated the economy and pushed traders to roll up their sleeves. »
Gabrielle Rodrigue
22 years old, agent at Place aux jeunes du Granit
Gabrielle Rodrigue was 12 years old when the crazy train shook her little world of a young girl in bloom. The following summer, with her big sister, she spent a good part of the beautiful season working in a dairy bar serving cones to tourists. With the related task of answering their clumsy questions. “Every day, people asked us if we had lost members of our family in the ‘tragedy'”, says the 22-year-old young woman.
Gabrielle’s adolescence was marked by a city in mourning and a city center under construction. In volleyball tournaments, they and her friends are “the daughters of the Mégantic tragedy. “I almost wanted to say that I was from Sherbrooke,” she confides.
However, it is not to flee her city marked forever by sinister events that she decides to go into exile as an adult. “I wanted to go and study fashion, experience something different, meet new people. After studying in Quebec City and working in Montreal, Gabrielle Rodrigue has just returned home, where her parents still live. She observes a quiet way of life there, which suits her perfectly. “I’m just 22, but I’m a little grandmother in my head,” she laughs. “I had experiences elsewhere, I had my boyfriend, my friends, and now I feel like I belong in my new job. »
A job as a migration agent at Place aux jeunes, obviously tailor-made for Gabrielle Rodrigue, who has decided to fully embrace her roots in Mégantic. Thanks to exploratory stays and guided tours of the city, she now tries to convince young people like her to fall under the spell of Mégantic. “Of course not everyone is comfortable with how it was rebuilt, but I find that [la municipalité] has done such a great job in a short time”, she says before adding wisely: “In the end, I am not so attached to buildings, what matters is nature. And the lake is still there. »