Roch Legros Russell Robinson have issued a public letter regarding their proposal to move the Dionne home back to its original roots in Corbeil.
BayToday reprints it here, unedited.
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With heavy hearts, we deeply regret to announce the revocation of our proposal to rescue, relocate, protect and preserve the Dionne Family Homestead by returning it to its roots in Corbeil.
Our objective has always been, at the very least, to lay the foundation for the continued preservation of this local, national and international history so that future generations may learn about this remarkable, yet sadly controversial world event that consequently devastated the Dionne Family.
Unfortunately, we felt that our detailed proposal and conceptual plan, for the most-part, was met with pessimism and dismissal. Furthermore, it is evident and very disheartening, that the proposal was the centre of a political crossfire that was most uncomfortable and completely unexpected for us.
Most perplexing is that this turmoil is in stark contrast to the outpouring of community support since publicly sharing our plan.
We continue to believe that our sincere offer was a reflection of the dignity and respect owed to the Dionne Family.
As many will recall, our proposal was in essence, a community-based venture whereby we offered our property (the original Dionne farmland) to memorialize this little building, create a non-profit, charitable organization to raise the necessary funds independently to sustain and operate the organization, and to endow the artifact and its immediate property to the organization in perpetuity, and without any monetary benefit to ourselves in exchange.
How very sad that this message was inconsiderately questioned and rejected. We truly expected that community leaders would have embraced such a generous and sincere prospect on our behalf. We take this opportunity to thank the many supporters for their financial, in-kind and well-wishing support towards this objective and its common goal to honour the contribution, memory and sacrifice of the Dionne Family.
We wish to assure that each monetary donation is firmly secured in trust, and will be returned in full or re-directed according to each donor’s wishes following the political resolve of the Dionne Homestead destiny.
We further want to extend sincere thanks to our recently dissolved Steering Committee Members for all of their hard work and diligence in helping the community achieve its goals. We are encouraged that Councillor Mark King, as Chair of Community Services has assured us that he will continue his best efforts to secure a final resting place of dignity and respect to honour and memorialize the historical contribution and sacrifice of the Dionne Family.
We sincerely thank him for his support and we wish him every success.
Gratefully, Roch Legros Russell Robinson
See related story: Dionne Quints home to return to its roots?
