Work continues to save an historic church in Clare.

A group of volunteers helped decontaminate the steeple of Eglise Sainte-Marie in Church Point.

Many bags of bird feces were removed from the site Saturday as part of ‘Operation Pigeon,’ and over 50 people showed up to help.

Five local fire departments also used it as an exercise to deal with hazardous material.

Organizer and co-president of ‘Sainte-Marie heritage et developpement’ Stephanie St-Pierre talks about next steps.

“Our engineers and architects are going to be coming in during the first few weeks of April, and doing an evaluation of the building,” said St-Pierre.

She notes that over $12,000 has been raised, and they have to have a plan in place to save the 120-year-old structure by the end of June.

She says she’s confident they can avoid the wrecking ball.

“Sainte-Marie really deserves to be well-documented so that we know of it for generations to come. We are still very hopeful that demolition will not be an option and that we’ll be able to save it.”

The last service was held there in 2019, it’s the largest wooden church in North America.

The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth owns the building, and announced in December that demolition would take place.

That’s when ‘Sainte-Marie heritage et developpement’ was formed, and a last-ditch effort to save the church began.