{"id":161218,"date":"2025-11-30T20:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/161218\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T20:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:11:09","slug":"n-b-fishing-community-pays-tribute-to-loved-ones-through-christmas-tree-hung-with-buoys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/161218\/","title":{"rendered":"N.B. fishing community pays tribute to loved ones through Christmas tree hung with buoys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Residents in a rural New Brunswick fishing community on the Bay of Fundy have installed a Christmas tree decorated with buoys in honour of their loved ones.<\/p>\n

The nearly 12-foot-high wooden A-frame by the Back Bay wharf has been hung with hundreds of colourful buoys.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Cooke, who came up with the idea, said the tree aims to pay tribute to loved ones and ensure they aren’t forgotten.<\/p>\n

“We are all sad at Christmas because we wish our loved ones could be here,” she said. “It’s very, very special and we’re very proud of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ABeverly Mitchell’s buoy commemorates her father-in-law. (Submitted by Beverly Mitchell)<\/p>\n

Some buoys have unique decorations \u2014 a snowman, a cardinal, a baseball bat and ball, Cooke said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got all different colours, you’ve got names,\u201d she said.\u201d Someone’s put Bible scriptures, we’ve got hand prints from the students at school .. just so many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooke said the tree is meant to be a permanent commemorative structure that her family will maintain year-round.<\/p>\n

Beverly Mitchell drew a fishing vessel and snowshoes on buoys in honour of her father and father-in-law. Both now hang on the Back Bay tree.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tradition that each fisherman has a certain colour buoy,” she said. “So if you’ve seen a picture of the buoy tree, you will see it’s multi-coloured because those buoys were actually used by fishermen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe tree is a short walk from Kimberly Cooke’s house. (Submitted by Kate Cooke)<\/p>\n

The Bay of Fundy lobster fishery dates back to the mid-1800s, but Mitchell said the community is slowly losing its fishermen as younger generations choose different careers. She hopes the tree will also act as a symbol of Back Bay\u2019s fishing heritage and tradition.<\/p>\n

“It’ll just give visitors and even those who have moved in the community that aren’t used to our culture … an insight of what things used to be,” she said.<\/p>\n

Paul Legere, a pastor at the local church, said the tree shows how “close-knit” his community is.<\/p>\n

“It was really crazy how quick it went up,\u201d he said. “Everybody was thinking of ways, how can we decorate this buoy [tree] and get other people involved, so that’s what I thought was cool about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ATroy and Beverly Mitchell have a buoy in the memory of their father displayed on the community’s tree. (Submitted by Beverly Mitchell)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-161218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}