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Heritage Fair sets students on leadership path

Barriere Elementary Heritage Fair provides students with unique opportunities for learning and leadership
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The winners of the Barriere Elementary School Heritage Fair on Apr. 14. Pictured (l-r) Riley Kempter

Barriere Elementary School Principal Gordon Cumming reports the school’s annual Heritage Fair held Apr. 14 was a great success. The fair was held in the school gymnasium. Numerous student projects filled the room and they were all judged by community volunteers who donated a large portion of their day to critique the work of our area students.  Each student also gave a private presentation to the judges as they looked over the project.

“A big thank you to our community judges for volunteering their time,” said Cumming, “The Regional Heritage Fair takes place in Kamloops on May 5/6 and our winners will be attending there with their projects.”

BC Heritage Fairs is a province-wide program to encourage youth to see history around them in the places where they live.  The BC Heritage Fairs Society believes that young people develop stronger roots in their communities and understand the many ways that history is present in our lives, they become the leaders who will shape history themselves. Heritage Fairs have been held in British Columbia for over 20 years with the first Heritage Fair in British Columbia in Kamloops in 1994 and the first Provincial Heritage Fair in the same city in 2008.

Today 14 communities in B.C. host Regional Heritage Fairs each spring and involve over 6,000 students annually. Sixty of those students are selected to attend the annual Provincial Heritage Fair, a week long history camp hosted in different parts of the province in July each year.

“Heritage Fairs projects often appeal to students who might not be inspired by schoolwork but are enthusiastic about subjects close to them—like hockey, or a grandparent’s wartime service. These are what they turn into Heritage Fair projects,” said Michael Gurney, President of the BC Heritage Fairs Society  “The recognition a student receives through presenting his or her project at a School, Regional or Provincial Fair can have a significant positive impact—and change an unfocussed student to an active one. Heritage Fairs help set young citizens on a path to becoming leaders.”