The Regional Heritage Fair is a place of discovery for students learning about their world and past accomplishments/horrors.
Projects at this year’s heritage fair ranged from science, sport, culture, war, the economy, residential schools, the Congo to ice cream and Winnie the Pooh.
Payson Peterson of Glentworth chose the cowboy culture of saddle bronc riding, borrowing a saddle from a neighbour rider for his display.
Peterson pointed out that the cinch around the bronc’s belly doesn’t hurt the animal.
The Grade 7 student wants to follow his family in rodeo with team roping then later saddle bronc riding.
No bull riding for him.
“I don’t like bull riding,” he grinned.
A school mate, Savannah Peterson, chose the Vikings for her project and earned a spot at the provincial fair.
Natasha Lynds of King George School studied Anne of Green Gables’ author Lucy Maude Montgomery, finding a different woman than she thought.
Reading all five Anne of Green Gables books and Montgomery’s journals, Lynds found the books were light and told about good things but the journals showed a woman struggling with mental illness and wanting more opportunity for women in the work place.
Rose Amor of King George studied Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare in Canada. She thinks his introduction of medicare saved lives of people without money to pay for medical treatment.
Kai Gauthier of Palliser Heights studied maple syrup and was surprised to learn how the tasty pancake condiment was discovered in the 1500s.
An Indian chief threw a tomahawk into a maple tree. His wife used the “water” from the tree to cook and discovered maple syrup.
Kassidy Farago of Palliser Heights did her project on her great aunt Doris Barr, a pitcher in women’s professionial baseball.
In the 1930s and 1940s, women playing sports was “considered unladylike.”
Her Manitoba-born aunt had a 79-94 win-loss record with 572 strike-outs in 218 games during seven years with six teams. Her best earned run average was 1.61. She was inducted into four halls of sports fame.
Farago said her great aunt and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League showed women have sports talent and can be professional.
Liam Atkinson of Palliser Heights chose Cree talkers from the Second World War as his project. He said the Cree talkers saved lives by using the Cree language as a code for communication.
Max Lynchuk and Tucker McNevin of Palliser chose two world wars and several historical Canadian figures.
One included the Ontario superintendent who first blew the whistle on the failure of Indian residential schools.
Donovan Harkness of Palliser Heights chose fur trapping, and showed traps from his uncle in the Yukon who uses traps that kill instantly.
Twelve projects off to provincials
Twelve student projects from the Regional Heritage Fair at Moose Jaw were selected to move on to the provincial heritage fair competition.
Fifty-six projects from eight schools within the Prairie South School Division entered projects.
Those going to the provincials include:
- Shayda Boychuk and Harlee Tichit (Grade 8), Davidson, The Great Depression and How It Affected Canada.
- Mary-Jane Doherty (Grade 8), Glentworth, Vikings
- Daniel Mulolani (Grade 7), King George School, Black Canadians in Government
- Emma-Leigh Vancoughnett (Grade 7), King George, Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment
- Nicholas Schenk (Grade 8), Palliser Heights, Canada’s Military Contributions During World War One
- Kylee Michaluk (Grade 6), Sunningdale School, Child Labour in Canada
- Avery Surtees (Grade 7), King George, Chris Hadfield: The First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station
- Rhodina Tschetter (Grade 6), Belle Plaine Hutterite School, The People of the North
- Estera Tschetter (Grade 6), Belle Plaine Hutterite School, Blood & Iron: The Canadian Pacific Railroad
- Kassidy Farago (Grade 8), Palliser Heights, Doris Barr
- Chase Seaborn (Grade 6), King George, Saskatchewan Roughriders
Full results are available on the Heritage Saskatchewan website.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
