Students at the St. John Valley Technology Center just finished a project unlike any other: a 20-foot metalwork Acadian star made out of the former international bridge.
Artist Dan Cayer of Grand Isle, the designer, said it resembles an open-armed symbol from the United States that welcomes Acadians to the country.
The sculpture holds significant meaning. The star symbolizes the region’s Acadian culture and connection to France, and the piece is built from portions of the bridge that connected the United States and Canada for more than a century. And, once in place, it will welcome visitors to Madawaska just in time for the town’s Acadian Festival this summer.
“This is beautiful,” Cayer said on Tuesday as he saw the sculpture placed on a large truck for shipping to Madawaska. “It’s incredible.”
The sculpture went to the Madawaska Public Works garage, where it will be painted, placed on its base and prepared for its formal unveiling at the festival later this summer.
Tony Paradis, who teaches welding at the Frenchville tech center, led two different classes consisting of 16 students through the process.
“All I have to say is that my students kicked ass,” Paradis said, declining to comment further.
Despite its unconventional nature, the project taught the students several real-world skills that they will use as they move forward into college and future careers.
Junior Collin Pelletier has taken part since the very beginning. He cut the pieces with a large saw and worked on welding and assembly.
The process taught him how to fit pieces together and weld different sizes of metal.
“I think it’s a good teamwork project,” he said.
Pelletier hopes to pursue a career as an automotive mechanic.
Rhys Grivois, who recently graduated, said he joined about halfway through and worked on fitting together some of the star’s points.
“I welded on the star, and after we got everything fitted up, I was grinding,” he said. “I found that was fun. It was cool.”
Grivois found the fabrication and fitting part to be particularly interesting and enjoyable. He begins classes at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle this fall and would eventually like to pursue a career as an auto body technician, which he said involves fabrication skills.
Camden Caron, a junior whose father works as a land surveyor, had one of the most unique experiences. Involved in the star sculpture since the beginning, he has cut beams, ground metal and welded parts together.
But he’s also had a hand in working on two international bridges — the one the star is made of and the new crossing that opened in 2024.
“I helped survey and build the new international bridge,” he said. “And I helped them tear down the old bridge. So it’s cool to work on the new bridge and old bridge.”
Junior Levi Kimber joined the project about halfway through. He helped fit two of the points on the star and operated machinery to grind out imperfections.
“It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be,” he said. “Once it was up, it was a lot different than I thought.”
Without the base, the star is between 18 and 19 feet tall. The finished sculpture will include all the names of the students who worked on the project, which Kimber said will be a source of pride for years to come.
“All our names are going to be up there,” Kimber said. “We all built it together. It’s going to be there for a while.”
