With approximately 35 active members at the time, the foundation's mission was to encourage the use of French, promote bilingualism and provide a cultural contact point for French speakers in and around Saint-Jean.

As soon as it was established, the Saturday School was an immediate success. Forty years later, the service still exists today under the name Saturday Club and offers a fun learning space for children whose first language is not French.

The French-speaking Frecker choir, precursor of the Rose des vents, directed until 198 by Tom Fagan, established itself and quickly gained popularity.

Learn more: History of the Compass Rose.

The Association created and presented its first play entitled Cinderella, Newfoundland style, written by Peter Ayres. It features a Newfoundland princess who goes by canoe to Red Island (the French name for Newfoundland), a prince who is trying to find out who owns the said princess's rubber boot, and all sorts of nods to French-Newfoundland culture.

Image: Performance of the play in 2009 for the traditional dinner show, Photography by Sylvain Luneau for Le Gaboteur.

A French community radio station operated at 3^e floor of the building on LeMarchant Street.

By the Association, the 47^e The Canadian Association for French Language Education (ACELF) congress, “A new generation of learners, a new generation of stakeholders,” was hosted in Saint-Jean.

Image: 47th ACELF Congress, photograph from our archives.

Having the same mission as the Frecker choir, dissolved four years earlier in 1992, the Rose des vents choir was formed by Jacques Chollet to take over from his predecessor, following the request of Andrée Thoms, the president of the Association at the time.

Even today, the choir is still active and bears the same name.

Learn more: History of the Wind Rose.

The AFSJ organized its first Franco-festival.

This festival, now known as the Festival du vent, brings together the Francophone community of the Saint John region to celebrate and promote Francophone culture on the Avalon Peninsula and increase the community's visibility. The Festival du vent provides the ideal opportunity to share and showcase the music, theatre, visual arts, and traditional gastronomy of the Francophonie, and to contribute to the cultural and tourism richness of our province. It features Francophone and Francophile artists from here and abroad.

Image: The 2004 open-air Franco-Festival at Murray Premises, a faded photograph from our archives.

The ASFS merged with the Société du centre scolaire et communautaire de Saint-Jean, because of their similar mission and the need to share limited resources.

Following the merger, the ASFS took its present name: the Association communautaire francophone de St-Jean Inc. (ACFSJ).

To provide infrastructure to serve the community and a French-language school in Saint-Jean, the Grands-Vents School and Community Centre, commonly referred to as the "Centre" by locals, was founded. Since then, most activities and events have taken place there.