How it all started
This was the first official public appearance by STomPIERRE. The motivation here took place because of Jean's desire to help out the victims of the Manitoba flood back in 1997. The event pictured here took place in front of Wal-Mart of Woodstock, ON, in early May of that year. The previous year, Jean had visited Winnipeg, met all kinds of nice people and, now, therefore, felt even more obligated to do something to help. This flood disaster relief effort turned out to be quite successful and was followed with similar appearances in the area. Here, with the help of the Woodstock Salvation Army captain which, gladly accepted to be the official charity organization represented for the idea, and also, the help of two of his french Canadian armed forces soldier friends which, came down from Borden, STomPIERRE went on, STomPED, twanged, and sang the two-hour fundraiser which fetched $314.80. Following these events which happened to be covered in local newspapers, STomPIERRE started receiving phone calls from people asking for more and the rest is history