While Alberni Valley citizens are (hopefully) heading out in force to make history on election day today, we applaud more than 100 students who celebrated history on Friday and Saturday at the 15th annual Alberni Valley Museum Regional Heritage Fair.
The students, from Grades 3–12 and mostly from School District 70 this year, were not afraid to tackle tough subjects: projects ranged from residential schools to resource industries, war and Japanese internment to immigration, sports to famous Canadian celebrities.
The depth of the students’ research on their subjects was inspiring: testament to the work their teachers are doing in classrooms to make Canadian heritage relevant, and exciting to see students’ enthusiasm for their subjects.
In this age of budget cuts—from a heritage as well as education perspective—it is heartening to see the effort people are still putting into learning about our past. We are encouraged that projects such as the annual heritage fair will bode well when these youngsters become the leaders of our future.
We are also hopeful that such efforts now, when students are young, will hold over to the time they become decision-makers in charge of our country’s past.
Three of the winners from the Alberni Valley regional fair will be chosen to attend the week-long provincial heritage fair in Victoria in July. The choice on who to send won’t be an easy one.
— Alberni Valley News