The cloudy and windy weather conditions at Sarnia's waterfront did not take away from the excitement of celebrating Franco-Ontarian Day.
Hundreds of community members, students, and local dignitaries gathered at the Seaway Centre Parkette, at the end of Lochiel Street, on Wednesday morning for a flag-raising ceremony.
Centre Communautaire Francophone de Sarnia-Lambton Coordinator of Programs David Lauzier described the students' energy as "pure proudness" as children chanted and danced while waving green and white flags.
"It's energizing," he said.
Lauzier said the event is a great opportunity to have fun and celebrate the local francophone community.
"We just want to be seen and heard because we're part of Ontario. It's one of the two official languages of Canada and often people are like, 'oh, there's French-speaking people in Sarnia?' and we're like 'yes, we're here,'" laughed Lauzier.
He also said the francophone community has grown over the years, in part because of immigration.
"I think we went from 3,000 to 4,000 francophones, or at least people who identify as francophone, and now we're at over 5,000. And that's just in Sarnia alone," Lauzier said.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said a few words at the event and was joined by two students to hoist the Franco-Ontarian flag up the pole, between the Canadian and City of Sarnia flags.
The flag was unveiled in 1975 and was officially adopted as the emblem of the Ontario French-speaking community in 2021.
City hall and the Sarnia sign will also be illuminated green on Wednesday.
