Past comes alive for Valley students

Okanagan students research history project, report their findings at Heritage Fair

Students from across the Okanagan researched the history of the Okanagan, British Columbia and Canada, and presented their findings at the Okanagan Regional Heritage Fair on Tuesday.

“The purpose of Heritage Fair is to bring people together to make history come alive,” said Jen Garner, with Kelowna Museums.

Angelina Michaels, a student at the Central Okanagan school district’s online school, studied the history of Kelowna’s Bernard Avenue for her project.

She focused on four time periods from 1892 to the present.

There wasn’t much at all on Bernard in 1892, said Michaels.

“There was basically just a general store and a notary,” she said.

Between 1898 and 1904, Bernard Avenue started to get more lively, with a Chinese restaurant, a bakery and other businesses, she said.

“Between 1905 and 1911 was the time of most change, because buildings were being built on both sides of the avenue,” said Michaels.

Michaels chose to research Bernard Avenue because she lives in Kelowna and she wanted to learn more about her city’s history.

“I didn’t know basically anything about Bernard Avenue, so it was really interesting to see how it started and what it is today,” she said. “Today it’s the commercial and cultural hub of Kelowna.”

Macie Lewis, a student at Kidston Elementary in Vernon, chose to do her project on hockey, her favourite sport.

“I’m a very big hockey fan,” she said. “I did my project on the Rossland Ladies, who were the first Canadian women’s hockey team.”

The team started in Sandon, B.C., in 1897, and was invited to play at the Rossland Winter Carnival in 1900, said Lewis.

They’re more than just a hockey team,” she said. “They’re the foundation of hockey.”

Keila Brittle, a student with the Central Okanagan school district’s online school, focused her project on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island Money Pit, where people have been searching for treasure for centuries.

“It’s a buried treasure mystery,” she said.

Brittle said she’d never heard of the Oak Island Money Pit until she started searching for a topic to research for the Heritage Fair.

“This kept popping up and it was really cool,” she said. “I’m glad I ended up choosing this one, because it was really interesting and fun to learn about.”