This month we lost one of Vaillancourt’s Folk Art best friends, Dr. Bruce Hanes. In 1983 I purchased our first three chocolate mould from Bruce at a show in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Over the next 30 years over 90% of our moulds were purchased from Bruce his wife Lorry and then their children, Butch and Cherrie. Bruce was an ardent supporter of Vaillancourt searching out rare moulds that we needed for our collection, finding us clips in Belgium and always offering his help in solving moulding issues. After Lorry passed, Bruce and Dorothea would visit the studios regularly and attended many of our collector weekends. Extremely knowledgable, friendly and always willing to help. Bruce was part of the family and all of us at Vaillancourt Folk Art will miss him tremendously. -Gary
