LEWISTON — Rita Dube talks to the Virgin Mary.

At her church, she lights a candle and prays for help. And at work, at the Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s, Dube talks to Mary through the carved image above the stage.

“It’s very personal,” Dube, the center’s 69-year-old executive director, said. The relationship with Mary gives Dube strength and peace. “She listens. Not always, but so far, she’s done good.”

In the past 12 years, the grand, former church narrowly escaped the wrecking ball, underwent millions of dollars in renovations and became a Lewiston-Auburn gem. Last year, the center hosted 110 events, including concerts and weddings, French-language lunch gatherings and fully costumed Mardi Gras celebrations.

All came under Dube’s care. That will change, though.

This Dec. 6, on her 70th birthday, she plans to retire.

She began to think about it last year.

“I didn’t know how much longer I could continue at this pace,” she said. She missed trips with her husband, Paul, who runs Dube Travel. And she missed time with her 10 grandchildren. “I don’t get to see my little ones enough.”

Finally, it hit.

“My big birthday present to ‘moi’ will be my last day of work,” she said.

The Franco Center board has already formed a search committee to find someone to take her place.

It’s an “impossible” job, Lionel Guay, who brought Dube to the center at its inception in 2000, said.

“She’s the whole life of that center,” he said. “She’s devoted. She’s a hard worker, and she believes in the cause.”

Maine’s Catholic Diocese had decided to close St. Mary’s Church, a landmark in Lewiston’s Little Canada neighborhood. Fixing its granite structure was deemed too costly. Officials had already begun gathering estimates for the demolition.

The same day Dube was finishing a fundraising campaign for the YWCA of Central Maine, Guay called her. Dube had planned to leave fundraising.

“I thought, ‘That’s it. I’m tired of begging.'” she said. “I’d done it for (Central Maine Medical Center), the YWCA and I’d done it for (St. Dominic Academy).”

Guay appealed to her Franco-American background.

“He gave me this whole, ‘It’s your heritage and you speak the language well and you know the community,'” she said.

“Think of your grandchildren,” he told her.

Dube relented.

“He got to me,” she said.

The team of Guay, Dube and a few volunteers bought the church for $1.

“We couldn’t let it be destroyed,” Dube said.

Guay served as president of the newly formed center. Dube went to work as the executive director. Her salary: $0.

She worked for nothing for about two years as plans were created to transform the church into a performing arts center. She called every possible donor. She wrote grant applications. She sold church pews. And she built contacts.

When the money started coming in, she and the board hired contractors to repair the stone exterior and transform the traditional nave with its baby-blue walls into a first-class performing arts space. Eventually, there would be plush, graduated seating, modern sound and light systems and, of course, a new coat of paint.

Even before many of the modifications, Dube believed in the center.

One memory stands out, she said.

“I remember the day exactly,” she said. “It was the first symphony concert we had upstairs. I sat in the rear of the audience on a church pew and listened to that music and looked at the Blessed Virgin up above and said to myself, ‘She’s going to help me make this happen.’ I knew.”

Since then, the upstairs was finished and the downstairs has been refurbished. About $6 million has been raised, much from congressional earmarks given to institutions in poor neighborhoods. Another $1 million came from a statewide bond several years ago.

“I know what the center was like before,” said Chip Morrison, president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce and a member of the search committee who will look for Dube’s replacement. “It was a beautiful church, but it wasn’t a performing facility. It wasn’t a community gathering facility, and it was in significant disrepair.

“Today, it’s an incredible place for our communities,” he said.

The symphony — the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra — remains a regular performer. The Maine Music Society Orchestra, the Androscoggin Chorale and the Androscoggin Dance Company are all regulars. Celtic concerts and piano concerts are staples of the schedule. And almost every month, 200 to 300 French speakers gather in the downstairs hall for a lunchtime meeting, La Rencontre. It includes food, music and stories.

On April 13, the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival will kick off at the Franco center with a reception and concert with “American Pie” singer-songwriter Don McLean.

Dube plans to watch the concert. She’ll also enjoy showing off the center to an audience that might never have stepped inside.

“I do feel that we have come a very long way,” Dube said. “I think that we’ve become a huge community asset.”

Dube credits many volunteers and her growing staff, which now numbers five.

Morrison credits Dube.

“In and of herself, she built the place,” he said.

That’s why finding a replacement will be so tough. The center wants an experienced fundraiser, an administrator and someone who either speaks French or is willing to learn. 

“We’re going to search anywhere we can find a human who wears a cape and an ‘S’ on the front of their shirt,” Morrison said.

 dhartill@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link