Blanche Belanger
Blanche Belanger and Ann Eames were a team of home-school coordinators, working with the development of securing signatures and tabulations of the student eligibility 506 forms. Ann had an AA and was organized and a good writer. Blanche and Ann were both personable and affable. Blance was especially street smart, witty, tasteful, with a sense of humor and people were quickly drawn to her, students, parents, and grandparents alike; not to mention school officials, teachers, and community education, courts and social service agencies.
Everyone in Indian Country knew Blanche and she knew them, and where they lived, even in the boondocks of SugarIsland. She was one of them, and they were comfortable with her visiting their homes. She had various musical skills, liked a good joke, was always cheerful, assuring and therefore, accepted.
Blanche had five children, two older sons larry and Bobby McKechnie, followed much later by three daughters, Barb, Janice Willis, and Cathy Belanger. Following the birth of the girls, Blanche decided to stay home and raise them as a single mom. By the time they started junior high and high school, she was more than ready for community/tribal volunteer involvement and to return to the workplace, in a position conducive to her daughter's school schedule; so a school system was the perfect place for her.
Not only was she the most successful person in outreach with the parents, both the young elementary and preschool students were drawn to her as well. At the Jr. High level, she was particularly effective in securing the trust and confidence of often troubled young girls.
Additionally, Blanche was cherished by school administrators, building principals, and classroom teachers. Her affability, contagious laugh, system and building loyalties and the innate abilities to breakdown communication barriers will long be remembered by those of us who worked in the school system on a daily basis.
Following the recognition of the late Blanche Belanger and Ann Eames in the early 1980's, Rosemary Gaskin, well-known community activist of the community Action Agency was hired as Home-School Coordinator. Rosie did a commendable job in the position while she held it; but it was not her baby, and the commitment was not as strong as Blanche Belanger's and to a lesser degree, Ann Eames'.
As such, it is with pride and a pursuit of overlooked recogition of an heretofore unsung heroine, Blanche Belanger, that I propose to the Title IX Committee that you consider naming the native American Collection at the SaultAreaHigh School as The Blanche Belanger Memorial Native American Room.