Heritage on display
Annual heritage fair focuses on students’ interests
Milania Macintyre, a Grade 5 student at Brookland Elementary in Sydney, shows her exhibit on Sable Offshore Energy during the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education Heritage Fair held at Cape Breton University on Friday.
SYDNEY — Hannah Mae Swan has quite a story to tell about one of her ancestors.
“Anna Swan is related to me and she was a female giant,” the Grade 6 student at Malcolm Munroe Memorial Middle School explains during the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education Heritage Fair at Cape Breton University on Friday. “She stood at 7’11” so she was almost eight feet tall. When she was born, she was 18 pounds, almost triple the size of an average baby, and when she was four, she was 4’6”. She grew really fast. When she was six, she was 5’4”. She was extremely tall. When she was 15 she had stopped growing and she was her whole height of 7’11”.
Swan, 12, is happy to talk all day about her great-great-great-grandfather’s cousin and she’s eager to share her knowledge about one of history’s tallest people. She was one of about 100 students from throughout the Cape BretonVictoria Regional Centre for Education taking part in this year’s Heritage Fair CBU on Friday and, according to organizer Barrie Bernard, each of the 77 projects on display focused on local history that mattered to each of students involved.
“Some of it might be their family, some of it might be heritage or culture that they’re interested in and want to do research in, so there’s a wide variety of projects,” said Bernard. “Everybody is excited because this is the regional fair.”
Each of the students participating won their fairs at each of the schools participating and from those taking part on Friday, eight will get to go to a provincial fair in Halifax later this year. According to Bernard, the students have to explain their projects to judges and for some, it can be quite nervewracking but in a good way.
“There’s a lot of things on the line in terms of the winners today so you can tell it’s a little intense and kids are nervous but it’s all good fun and it’s a great learning experience.”
It’s also entertaining. If you’re expecting an average educational event, you may be surprised by the variety of subjects covered, which includes everything, from Celtic music and diabetes to residential schools and root beer.
“We have everything from one end to the other end in terms of heritage,” says Bernard.