BIDDEFORD—On Friday, March 25 at 5:30pm, the Heart of Biddeford will kick off the third annual La Fête du Printemps, a weekend celebrating Franco-American culture, with a showing of several carvings by local folk artist Adelard Coté (1889-1974). In addition, hand-made childrens books written in French by First Level French students at Biddeford High School will also be on display.

Coté, born into a peasant farm family in Ste-Sophie, a small town near Quebec, became an accomplished blacksmith. He left Canada as a young man to seek his fortune and landed in Biddeford in the early 1900s, where he was hired by Pepperell Manufacturing Company as a blacksmith.

Coté’s desire for adventure unsatisfied, he left Biddeford for a brief stint working in a light bulb factory in New York City, and to wander the province of Manitoba and Saskatchewan before returning to Biddeford in 1920 to open his own blacksmith shop.

Organizations stand with local youth to speak against tobacco company’s exploitation of youth

Students from schools in the greater Biddeford-Saco area are partnering with Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition, Southern Maine Medical Center and Thornton Academy to speak out against the exploitation of youth by tobacco companies during National Kick Butts Day. Each year, tobacco manufacturers spend nearly $60 million directly targeting youth in Maine promoting tobacco products. Local students are fighting back against this practice by reaching out to their peers and educating them about the impacts of smoking and how tobacco companies are cashing in at their expense.

WHAT: Kick-Butts Day is a national observance where youth speak up
against tobacco and teen exploitation in an effort to lower youth tobacco use. Local events will kick-off at a rally and press event held at Thornton Academy.