2022 Heritage Fairs & High School Heritage Challenge!
By Katherine Gilks, Outreach Coordinator
The 2022 Heritage Fairs season is upon us!
This year, we have three exciting events:
our third Virtual Heritage Fair;
the Provincial Heritage Fair;
and our first High School Heritage Challenge!
The deadline to submit projects to either the Virtual Heritage Fair (grades 4-8) or the High School Heritage Challenge (grades 9-12) is Monday, April 25. This is the first day back after Easter break in most of Saskatchewan school divisions.
As the ongoing pandemic continues to have a big impact on schools, there are once again no Regional Fairs. The most recent in-person Heritage Fair was in May 2019 -- now nearly three years ago -- and in order to test bringing back this component of the program, Heritage Saskatchewan has decided to host a small, one-day Provincial Heritage Fair at Government House in Regina. This will take place in mid-June. For this year, we will take the unusual step of selecting the Provincial finalists from the Virtual Heritage Fair. All Virtual Heritage Fair participants are eligible. In this manner, the Virtual Heritage Fair is both taking the place of the Regional Fairs as well as being its own province-wide contest. We look forward to seeing all of the projects online and then getting to meet some of the students in person!
The High School Heritage Challenge is a new contest for students in grades 9-12. It is entirely virtual. Two winning students will receive bursaries of $1000. For the High School Heritage Challenge, students need to submit a project about any topic relating to Canada - whether about the student and/or their family, a local story, something provincial or national in scope, or something relating Canada to the global community. The challenge for the students is to think critically and broadly about how their topic relates to key themes: wellbeing, reconciliation, environmental sustainability, justice, and living heritage. (Of course, students do not need to address all of these themes in their projects, but can choose to focus on one or two.) All students get the opportunity to explore an interest in heritage and what it means to them. Having prior Heritage Fairs experience is not required!
We look forward to learning from our students this year, seeing the variety of projects from the wide range of ages and backgrounds, and sharing all of their wonderful work.
Additional information can be found at www.heritagesask.ca
