Two students place in top 10 at virtual provincial heritage fair

Two Moose Jaw students finished in the top 10 at the first-ever virtual Heritage Fair, a provincial event that Heritage Saskatchewan organized in response to the pandemic cancelling all in-person fairs. Dani Brazeal, a Grade 6 student at King George Elementary School, placed fifth for her project about the Canadarm. She also picked up secondary awards for best project in the Moose Jaw region, second place for best video presentation, and third for innovation award.

Olivia Hawley, a Grade 5 student at Sunningdale Elementary School, placed sixth for her project about the Dionne Quintuplets. She also picked up secondary awards for: highest score for a Grade 5 student, second place for most passionate and compassionate about topic, and third place for society and justice award. Other Moose Jaw students also received awards in other secondary categories. Visit heritagesask.ca for a complete list.

“I think it’s exciting,” Hawley said about how she finished. “I’m kind of shocked because I didn’t think I would place in the top 10. They sent an email (with the results) to my parents; we looked at it … and I jumped around.”

Hawley would have advanced to regionals from the school level to compete if the coronavirus hadn’t hit. When the pandemic forced schools to close, her teacher told her about how Heritage Saskatchewan was running a virtual provincial fair. One thing that surprised her was students from other communities — such as Swift Current and Regina — were also participating and it wasn’t solely Moose Jaw youths. What Hawley enjoys about history is learning about difficult events that occurred and how Canadians overcame them. For example, she wanted to create a project about the Great Depression since she learned about it in school. During her research about the decade-long depression, she came across the Dionne Quintuplets.

It was easy to find websites with material about the five identical sisters, but Hawley realized it was difficult to determine what type of impact they had on the country. She had to develop a hypothesis of the quintuplets’ effect on the country and their importance.

“I just thought it was so sad that these little girls went through (their ordeal), that I just wanted to let people know what happened … ,” Hawley said. “I thought it was interesting that their parents would let the government kind of take over their life, and then after, the parents just expected them to come home and be OK with all of it and not feel uncomfortable at all.” Hawley does not expect to compete in the Heritage Fair next year since she wants others to have a turn.

“I was really proud of myself (for placing in the top 10). Like, I didn’t think I would make it but, I’m just really proud that my hard work paid off and other people get to see what I worked on,” said Brazeal.

It was exciting to do so well, she continued, but she wasn’t keen on all the attention she received, especially from her large family, since they annoyed her by bombarding her with congratulatory text messages. This was Brazeal’s first year participating in a Heritage Fair and she was excited to show off her project. However, she was frustrated that she couldn’t display it in-person after the pandemic cancelled all heritage fair events.

Choosing to focus on the Canadarm seemed natural for the Grade 6 student, as she and her father have studied the stars and space since she was little. However, it was only during the past year that she

Dani Brazeal speaks about the Canadarm, in a screen brag from a YouTube video she put together for the inaugural virtual Heritage Fair. Photo by Jason G. Antonio became genuinely interested in the distant reaches of the universe.

“I think it’s really neat how, like, there’s a whole another, like, … galaxy out there and like, where you don’t really know what’s out there,” Brazeal said. “It’s just, like, interesting.”

What Brazeal learned about the Canadarm

— a long boom arm used on space shuttles — is it was not the only one Canada produced. This country also created a second Canadarm and a third arm called Dexter. Brazeal is determined to participate in the Heritage Fair program next year and wants a do-over so she can present her project in real life.