Quebec class wins Canada’s coolest school contest
Competition was fierce and hopes were high for the classes who recently participated in the Amazing Video competition to win Canada’s Coolest School Trip.
This contest is offered through the My Parks Pass program, a collaboration between Parks Canada, Canadian Geographic Education, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Nature Canada and Historica Canada to invite youth to learn about Canada’s natural and cultural heritage and experience them first-hand. The contest was open to all Grade 8 and secondary 2 classes in Canada and ran from October 2013 to February 2014. Thirty-eight videos were submitted, and over 150,000 votes were cast from people across the country to pick the top 10 videos for judging.
In the end, the grand prize winners from École Antoine-Roy in Rivière-au-Renard, Quebec, won the trip of a lifetime to visit magnificent national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas on the coast of British Columbia. They will embark on a four-day trip in June to go whale watching and kayaking in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, live the life of a World War soldier at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site, experience local First Nations traditions, tour Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site and sleep under the stars in Parks Canada’s new oTENTiks.
What a way to end the school year! Their heart-touching video features a song written and sung by the students, accompanied by images of what makes Forillon National Park unique and special.
More locally, the students of Northside Christian School in Vanderhoof won one of three runner-up prizes. Their video re-enacts events surrounding the driving of the Last Spike, which completed the country’s first trans-continental railway.
Their prize will be to have the whole of Fort St. James National Historic site to themselves for a night, where they will travel back in time to 1896 and enjoy the most luxurious accommodation New Caledonia had to offer. There will be special period activities designed just for the students, followed by dinner served by costumed interpreters. They might even get to meet the resident ghost!
To check out the winning videos, go to contest.myparkspass.ca
What is Fort St. James National Historic Site?
This restored Hudson’s Bay Company post on the southern shores of Stuart Lake in the interior of British Columbia was a centre of trade and commerce in the 19th century fur trade. Originally established by Simon Fraser for the North West Company in 1806, this place displays the largest group of original wooden buildings representing the fur trade in Canada. Their story revolves around the relationships and interactions between the fur traders and native peoples of the region, namely the Carrier First Nations.
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