Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Astute travellers walking the Napanee River trail have no doubt noticed a stunning addition to the Napanee Legion Branch 137 building.
The once plain white exterior has been transformed into a striking mural featuring larger-than-life portraits of sailors, naval infantry in action and an enormous depiction of the HMCS Napanee listing among the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
If the style of artwork looks familiar that’s because artist Shane Goudreau, who has been working on the Legion project for the last couple of weeks, was the same artist who created the farm scene depicted on the silo located behind the L&A Mutual Insurance Co., just a few hundred feet up the road from the Napanee Legion.
“He’s taken pictures from our wall of veterans inside the club room and he has painted them so well that people walking along the boardwalk actually recognize exactly who they are,” Napanee Legion Branch 137 president Peggy Sunstrum said of Goudreau. “It’s been phenomenal for a picture that size.”
Funding for the project came from the Atura Power Napanee Generating Station, the Town of Greater Napanee, and support from the I HeART Main Street Program. Sunstrum said the town approached the Legion about using their building for a mural to beautify the community, to which the Legion happily obliged. Prior to being approached Sunstrum had actually explored the idea of having Goudreau create a mural similar to the one he did for Legion Branch 631 in Kingston’s Collins Bay.
“We’ve had so many people commenting and saying it’s so wonderful for Napanee and it touches the heart because its veterans you know who have served in our local Legion and for our country and its just heartwarming,” said Sunstrum. “We wanted something to pertain to veterans and the history of our town. They came up with the HMCS Napanee and we thought it was wonderful and Shane just loved it and he’s done such a good job.”
The HMCS Napanee was a Flower-class corvette in the Royal Canadian Navy. As was common during WWII, the ship was named for a town in Canada.
Active between 1941-45, HMCS Napanee escorted 11 trans-Atlantic convoys, travelling between St. John’s and Iceland. She is credited for helping to sink a German U-356 submarine in December of 1942. HMCS Napanee survived the war before being scrapped in 1946.
Goudreau’s depiction makes it appear as those the ship is about to cruise from the side of the building and right on into the Napanee River.
The Legion mural was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of June, but inclement weather has pushed the project back about a week into early July. The town has announced it plans to hold a special ceremony to celebrate the completion of the mural.